The Big City (1963)

Life at home changes when a house-wife from a middle-class, conservative family in Calcutta gets a job as a saleswoman.

Director:

Satyajit Ray

Writers:

Narendranath Mitra (from a story by), Satyajit Ray (scenario)

Stars:

Anil Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Jaya Bachchan

Top Rated Indian Movies #14 | 1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Anil Chatterjee	...	Subrata Mazumdar
Madhabi Mukherjee	...	Arati Mazumder
Jaya Bachchan	...	Bani (as Jaya Bhaduri)
Haren Chatterjee	...	Priyogopal (Subrata's father)
Sefalika Devi	...	Sarojini (Subrata's Mother) (as Shephalika Devi)
Prasenjit Sarkar	...	Pintu
Haradhan Bannerjee	...	Himangshu Mukherjee (as Haradhan Banerjee)
Vicky Redwood	...	Edith
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bibhuti Banerjee	...	(as Bibhuti Bandyopadhyay)
Manisha Chakraborty
Tapan Chatterjee	...	(as Tapen Chattopadhyay)
Arun Chowdhury
Pritish Dey
Shailen Ganguli
Shyamal Ghoshal

Storyline

Calcutta in the early 1960's. Bhambal supports his wife Arati, his parents, and two children. Money is tight, so Arati goes to work. She's successful and enjoys it, but this untraditional step throws the household into chaos: her in-laws initiate a "cold war" of silence and disapproval. When Bhambal loses his job, her working is essential; he loses self respect, and the gulf between them widens. Arati questions whether to keep her daughter in school. At work, her friendship with Edith, a Euro-Indian who smokes, swears, and uses lipstick, brings Arati close to impertinence with her genial boss. Her job is imperiled, she acts impulsively, and who will understand her actions?

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Plot Keywords:

lipstick | money | kolkata india | tradition versus modernity | toy gun | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

India

Language:

Bengali English

Release Date:

27 September 1963 (India)

Also Known As:

The Big City: Mahanagar

Filming Locations:

Calcutta, West Bengal, India

Company Credits

Production Co:

R.D.Banshal & Co.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min 122 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #668.

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Goofs

When Priyogopal (Subrata's father) goes to visit his student Anupam Roychowdhury to ask for money he is shown having a conversation with Anupam in his office. When he is explaining his circumstance the camera shows him only sitting on a chair with his walking stick. In the very next scene when all the three characters are shown (third one being Anupam's wife ) the top of his walking stick has changed direction. The round bit on top was towards the right before and is turned to the left in the very next scene.

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Quotes

Arati: [to her husband] You would not recognize me if you saw me at work.

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Connections

Remade as Humkadam (1980)

User Reviews

The Metropolis' Middle Class

Like all other Satyajeet Ray movies, this one too is wonderful. As the name signifies, Mahanagar or 'The Metropolis' is about Kolkata of the 1960s. The position of women, the biased views of the older generation, helpless conditions of banks and offices find a perfect blend in the movie. Bhombal supports his parents, sister, wife and children and works a clerk in a bank. Wife Arati understands their present day situation and decides employ herself as a sales girl. No one in the family- her in laws, her father, Bhombal and even her son liked her position though they had to completely rely on her after Bhombal lost his job. In her work, she met an Euro-Indian girl- Edith with whom she made friends. Eventually Edith got sacked from her job due to false charges and Arati, who protested against it, resigned. The films ends with a wonderful scene- Bhombal and Arati walking amongst thousands of people in the streets of Kolkata searching for a job. I personally liked a lot the last dialog of the movie- Bhombal said, 'You did nothing wrong resigning, you protested against corruption.. who dare does such a thing in such circumstances? Don't lose hope Arati, won't any one of us find a job in such a vast city?.....' Personally I liked very much the screen-play of Anil Chatterjee and Madhabi Mukherjee. The movie is overall a dedicated, sophisticated work of Satyajit Ray.