An Enemy of the People (Ganashatru) 
In this contemporary adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play An Enemy of the People (En folkefiende), Satyajit Ray offers a scathing commentary on the Indian social system and religious orthodoxies. Ray regular Soumitra Chatterjee stars as a doctor who traces a jaundice outbreak in a West Bengal tourist destination to the holy water at a popular temple. Yet his concerns for an epidemic are met with hostility and ostracization. Produced while Ray was ill, this biting drama was made at a time when Hindu nationalist sentiments were on the rise.  

Deliverance (Sadgati) 
Made for India’s government-run national television service in Hindi and rarely screened in the United States, Deliverance is Ray’s angriest and starkest film. On a scorching day, a Brahmin orders an “untouchable” cobbler to cut trees in exchange for arranging a marriage. The tragic results set off a fateful chain reaction in the weather-beaten village.