Ashani Sanket AKA Distant Thunder (1973) FotW #324

[Cocoa]

Film of the Week #324: Ashani Sanket AKA Distant Thunder (1973)



Summary:
As food shortages reach catastrophic proportions, Gangacharan attempts to preserve his privileged situation, while his generous wife, Ananga, conversely tries to help and support the community.

#350 on 500<400, with 218 checks.
Nominated by Cocoa and Minkin.
On IMDb
On iCM

From the 500<400 results

#350(⇧134, #484) Ashani Sanket (1973)
[Distant Thunder]

Directed by: Satyajit Ray
(310.46 Pts, 10 Votes) , Top 1–10–50: 0–0–2
History: 350←484←593←711←821←NA←NA

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ICheckMovies: 214 Checks , 14 Favourites , 6 Official lists

List of Voters:

Cocoa (20)
cinewest (25)
klaus78 (66)
Muellwind (73)
1SO (85)
xianjiro (91)
burneyfan (128)
zuma (NA)
Leopardi (292)
joachimt (402)

This movie fits the current Indian Subcontinent Challenge.



Here is a schedule of all the FotWs.

[joachimt]

Seen it. Like it. 8/10

[Cocoa]

I love this film. I never really thought much about how WW2 affected India, so this film was insightful.

[cinewest]

Is there a list of the “Films of the week for the past 3-5 months?

Also wondering how they are chosen. They all seem to be candidates for the 500<400 poll, in fact I’ve voted for a few that have shown up here, like this one.

Definitely one of several from the director that deserves more exposure.

[joachimt]

Is there a list of the “Films of the week for the past 3-5 months?

Also wondering how they are chosen. They all seem to be candidates for the 500<400 poll, in fact I’ve voted for a few that have shown up here, like this one.

Definitely one of several from the director that deserves more exposure.

There's a link to the schedule in the OP of each FotW.
There's a list on iCM in chronological order.
There's a link to the nomination-topic in the header of the forum.

[Cocoa]

Is there a list of the “Films of the week for the past 3-5 months?

Also wondering how they are chosen. They all seem to be candidates for the 500<400 poll, in fact I’ve voted for a few that have shown up here, like this one.

Definitely one of several from the director that deserves more exposure.

joachimt keeps an icm list of all the past FotWs. We also have a thread on this forum with the schedule.

All current FotWs are films that are either on the 500<400 list or are #501-1000 (aka 1000<400) that barely missed out on the official list. We have monthly nominations on this forum in which a member can nominate up to fifty 500<400 films and fifty 1000<400 films. Any member can nominate films. Three of the four/five selected films on the schedule per month fits a challenge theme (and receive the most nomination votes out of the films that fit the challenge theme) while the remaining ones are simply the films that receive the most nomination votes overall. There is always at least one 500<400 film and one 1000<400 film on the current monthly schedule, and preference is a two-step process of whichever film has the most nomination votes and if there is a tie between a 500<400 film and a 1000<400 film then the 500<400 gets the preference. The deadline to submit nominations is always on a Friday near the end of a month. The last day to submit nomination votes for the April FotW schedule is March 27.

Satyajit Ray

[cinewest]

@joachimt @Cocoa,

Thanks, all helpful. And I guess that's why I occasionally see one of the films I voted for in the 500<400 poll.

Agree that many of Satyajit Ray's films are among the more underrated. Hopefully, some Carlos Saura, Alain Tanner, Konchalovsky, Loznitsa, and Dorris Dorrie are on the way

[sol]

This might be the first time in three years that I have actually watched one of the FOTW films during its promoted week.

I thought that this was a very timely tale. I know that the situation is not quite the same here since there is a lot of supply and production, just limited availability, but the whole thing is very similar to the panic buying going on amid Coronavirus fears over here: empty supermarket shelves, very little rice (and other essentials) and what is available comes at jacked up prices. I don't think we'll reach the point of folks scouring for snails to eat, or going around from house to house begging for food, but gee it's eerie how little is available for purchase at the moment. Good film, by the way (yes, I realise that I have digressed from the topic at hand).

[sebby]

12th Ray, 11th favorite. This was some bleak shit. Beautiful filmmaking + palpable human suffering; few if any do it better.

[sol]

Absolutely insane how timely this film is.