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Courtesy: Satyajit Ray A Vision of Cinema, Viva Books © Nemai Ghosh

In this entirely rural story, Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder), Ray took great pains to make the behaviour of his Calcutta-based (now Kolkata) actors authentic. Here Ray shows the lead actor Soumitra Chatterjee how to smoke a hookah in the village manner, Dangapara, near Shantiniketan, West Bengal, 1972

For this film about the beginnings of Bengal famine of 1943-44, it was essential that shooting took place on location in a real village. Some months before the shooting began, Ray and his art director Asok Bose prepared a real hut in Dangapara, around which they planted suitable vegetation. This was then supervised by Bose to give it a lived-in look, and when it was ready Ray conducted a trial shoot there.

In this film, the rich natural colours of the village create a fascinating counterpoint to the grim events of the story, as famine grips the population.

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