Nagarik

Ramu,a fresh graduate is searching for a job like many others in post-Partition Kolkata.He lives in a lower-middle-class neighborhood with his mother, father,and sister. Ramu's sister,Seeta,is dressed up and paraded in front of prospective in-laws who humiliatingly examine her. The mother is painful of older times when the family used to live in a better house, but she bears her suffering quietly, for the most part. The father is myopic and full of cynicism for he does not share the idealistic aspirations of his two children that better times will come. The light of Ramu's life is his girlfriend Uma, who lives in an equally precarious situation with her sister Shephali and her mother. Jatin is an even poorer minor character living near Uma's dwelling who Ramu avoids because he cannot help the former out financially. To make ends meet, Ramu's mother takes in Sagar, a poor chemist, as a paying guest. Ramu does not get a job and cannot pay rent even with the money that he gets from Sagar and is insulted by the landlord. Ultimately the family is evicted. Just before the family has to leave to go stay in slums, Ramu visits Uma and tells him they are moving. Uma offers to help them set up in the new dwelling, an obvious sign of humanism on Ghatak's part. Shephali, her sister, cannot bear to live in poverty any longer, so she leaves home with a shady man.Seeta confesses that she loves Sagar, a love that Sagar reciprocates.However,Sagar, is now rendered homeless and destitute and mentions that he does not have the audacity to expect them to even be united. Ramu overhears parts of Sagar and Uma's conversation and is touched by the moment. He appeals to Sagar for him to come and live with the family. The film ends with the characters walking out in the rain, a symbolic sign of hope and renewal. —Swarup Basak