On a first glance you might see Devi [The Goddess] … as no more than a film with a thesis, Ibsen in an Indian setting….

The thesis, it seems, is clear; and in fact is nothing less than the latent theme of the Apu trilogy made articulate….

On the level of a thesis …, the plot is both inexorable and tight. Ironies fall into place neatly—almost too neatly. A child is saved, so another child must die. Women are treated both as serfs and as idols; in any event, they are never allowed to be human beings…. In the Apu trilogy episodes were mainly related to each other by association; as the images of river and parched land recurred they took on the resonance, possibly the symbolism, of myth. In Devi episodes relate to each other with rationalist logic. So symbolism is played down; the river and landscape never...