User reviews

Arati is a young middle-class housewife. The household includes Arati, her husband Subrata, who works as a bank clerk, their children and his elderly parents. Subrata is unable to support the entire family with his salary, and after a great deal of indecision, the couple decide that Arati must find a job. And she does so, much to the displeasure of his parents, who react with shame and anger when they find out that their daughter in-law has turned from a housewife into a working woman against tradition.

The story follows Arati's acclimation with her job as a sales woman, her growing independence, and her new relationships with people from different social and financial classes, one example being a young Anglo-Indian colleague named Edith whom she befriends. The real conflict, however, does not happen when Arati's in-laws start a silent "cold war", but when her husband himself loses his own job and Arati becomes the sole breadwinner of the family. Subrata loses self-respect and is filled with negative feelings of inferiority and shame.

This is the story of Satyajit Ray's extraordinary classic 'Mahanagar', a poignant, quiet and moving picture which depicts a whole world of conflicts resulting from modernisation and changing social and generational norms. Ray's portrayal of the urban India, its lifestyle and people, is brilliantly done. Everything about the film is, as expected, very authentic, very real and very easily identifiable with Ray's style of film-making. He makes the proceedings and the characters very interesting and very easy to relate to.

The film deals with the struggle of middle-class families to survive in the big city through their everyday hardships, but in the process, shows the gender role conflicts and criticises the hypocrisy of traditional conservativeness. One such instance is shown when Arati's father-in-law, a retired teacher who had complained that he was in need of a new pair of spectacles, now prefers going and begging from his former student rather than accepting money from his working daughter-in-law who 'breaks tradition'.

The relationships in Mahanagar are perfectly portrayed, whether it's Arati's relationship with her husband, with her kid, with her in-laws, with her employer. But the best thing about it is the portrayal of Arati's acquaintance with her new self. Her job provides her with confidence and self-belief as she grows increasingly independent, both socially and economically. Mainly due to her friendship with the Anglo-Indian Edith, who she would later stand up for, Arati learns to use lipsticks, wear dark fashionable glasses, speak more assertively and stand up against injustice, while still maintaining her individuality as a simple, unselfish woman.

Madhabi Mukherjee is astonishing as Arati. She is a natural beauty, and acts with grace and dignity. She convincingly transforms from a simple housewife into a modern and smart woman of substance, always letting the viewer sense her struggle, confusion and pain. Anil Chatterjee is great as the slightly embittered yet loving husband. Jaya Bhaduri is completely lovable and charming in her debut role. Prasenjit Sarkar is cute as a button as Pintu. Vicky Redwood is quite nice though her line delivery is often weak. Haradhan Bannerjee is very sympathetic as Arati's boss though his character is slightly prejudiced.

Mahanagar is another example of Ray's indelible craftsmanship, of his superb storytelling and his exceptional ability to tell a universal story which is both moving and educative in a simple yet very effective way. The film's pace may be a bit slow, but it is steady enough, and the picture remains thoroughly and consistently engaging and captivating. The ending is bittersweet - sad yet optimistic, satisfying and inspiring. Mahanagar is overall a beautiful social drama; a classic and fascinating piece which is highly recommended.

I found the movie exhilarating. This a movie where a Bengali housewife's actual stand in the eyes of those near to her comes to life. The house wife Aarati takes up the load of a job only to care for her family. While other family members gradually accept her new role, mostly because of the dire need of money, its her closest ally in the family, her husband, who isn't very warm to her new role. It first of all hurts his pride to accept her contribution, and he also resents her new found confidence, more than her independence. At the same time, Its the housewife Aarati who passes every test, as she copes with every challenge thrown at her, at home, at work and in her relationships with every individual. Personally i think thats what women are groomed to be, from birth, brave to take on the world whenever necessary. Its the husband who falters and learns to accept her after a big fight within himself.

Satyajit Ray, in Mahanagar, made a movie where ( in terms of cinematography and story-telling) not a single frame is wasted in anyway. Every movement of the actors, every hint relates to something or the other, while the story-telling is still simple enough for the ordinary to follow the story. I would recommend this to anyone.

Through 'Mahanagar' the great Satyajit Ray tells a story of an ordinary traditional family living in the modern big city (hence the title). However, the breadwinner of the family does not earn enough money to support the whole family. The wife decides to support him by working herself. Fortunately she finds a job and befriends a modern Anglo-Indian co-worker who does influence her by applying lip-stick and giving her a pair of sunglasses. The father of the family is a retired teacher and he does not accept the fact that his daughter-in-law is working. Gradually, the rest of the family disapprove her working. The retired teacher visits his former student and 'asks' for financial help.

Through this wonderful family drama, Ray tells us a story of the clash between modern and traditional values in a middle-class family struggling to make a living in the big city. Furthermore, Ray examines the 'urban' relationships as is reflected between the employer and employee, the husband and wife, the co-workers, the working mother and her child and so on. It is no surprise that Ray is THE most accomplished director of Indian cinema. This film, like pretty much everything else he did, only reminds us why.

The performances are top-notch. Again, this is no surprise as Ray manages to extract the best from his actors. Madhabi Mukherjee is breathtaking as we see her transform from a naive housewife, to a determined and excited employee to a strong courageous woman who stands up for her friend. Anil Chatterjee is excellent as the struggling husband who tries to make ends meet, silently accepts his wife's working but secretly resenting it. Vicky Redwood adds freshness with a strong presence and a likable performance. Haradhan Bannerjee is very good as the prejudiced but sympathetic boss. Jaya Bhadhuri delivers a very natural performance. The rest of the cast are all just as competent.

The ending isn't the traditional happy ending one witnesses in the numerous Indian films but it's one of optimism and hope that beautifully 'seals' the film. 'Mahanagar' is a fantastic example of the best of Indian cinema. A classic gem it is.

How does Satyajit Ray manage to evoke such a set of complex emotions with such simplicity? Madhabi Mukherjee delivers a amazingly nuanced, sensitive performance in this tale of personal empowerment. In an odd way, the story of personal triumph reminds me a bit of American films in the 1930s, when the hero struggled against odds and won; this time its 1960's India, at a time when women began to assert themselves simply because men failed to move with the times. I can just imagine a modern Hollywood remake of this film, with sex situations aplenty, lots of screaming and perhaps a stabbing or two! This worthy film about a struggling family attempting to maintain tradition in the face of modernity is subtle, and if you stick with it, involving. That said, this two different DVD versions I could find were hard to stick with, -the subtitles often did not match the picture, were often poorly translated, and the print itself, like so many Satyajit Ray films available in the U.S., looks like an old television print, grainy and too often dark, missing the subtle shades that typify his work. Whoever is in charge of this important film legacy needs to get on the stick and provide the clarity Ray deserves. Invest in the future of this important world filmmaker!

I haven't watched much of Satyajit Ray's films, but now I strongly have an urge to watch more and more.. My first Ray film was Charulata, which was once screened in our college film club. It too had Madhabi Mukherjee playing the title character, 'The lonely wife'.

After having finished watching Mahanagar, I felt that the lonely house wife I had seen earlier had achieved a sense of fulfillment..a sense of completion.The entire film is a microcosm of an typical urbane family of the 1960's Calcutta. The legendary city of Calcutta in the 1960's has been impressionistic-ally captured with all its charm as well as confusion.We can see some of the best well-scripted, realistic emotional sequences. An young Jayabhaduri too appears as the little sister of Mr. Mazumdar(The main character's husband). Madhabi Mukherjee again dons a intense character and proves her brilliance in acting.Now I have become impatient enough to watch Ray's Calcutta Trilogy and other films too.It is very difficult to get good prints of most of them.

Ray had based this film on Abataranika, a Bengali short story. All the actors have been handpicked-especially Anil Chatterjee and Haren Chatterjee-who played the role of Mr. Mazumdar and his father.The film was well-received at the 14th Berlin Festival and Ray won a Silver Bear for direction. Even though it was rejected at the Oscars, it received an All India merit certificate at the National awards that year.

If, at some point in the future, Pather Panchali cannot fulfil its duties as Satyajit Ray's masterpiece, Mahanagar can step up and fill in the position. Or perhaps the two films can co-rule, as they compliment each other so nicely. Pather Panchali is the simple, straightforward masterpiece and Mahanagar is the more ambitious and complex work. The first is Ray's La Strada and the second his La Dolce Vita.

The Big City is a subtle, flowing work about a young housewife (Madhabi Mukherjee, who would also star in Ray's Charulata) in a middle-class family who finds a job when her father-in-law needs a new pair of spectacles. The family is very conservative, and this upsets everyone. Her husband's manhood is somewhat insulted, her father- and mother-in-law (who both live with the married couple in a rather small apartment) feel that it's just not right, and her son thinks he's been forgotten. The only one who supports her is her younger sister-in-law; she sees her as a role model. The husband (Anil Chatterjee) tries to get her to quit, but, when he loses his own job, he changes his mind quickly. Now she becomes the breadwinner, and he is effectively castrated.

This could have been a little, humble film, like many of Ray's works. But here he decides to examine a huge portion of his own culture, setting up many opposites and studying them closely. We have the husband and wife, man and woman, old-world conservatism and new-world progression, young and old, employer and employee. The list goes on. The depth of this film is nearly endless, and I'm sure it would hold up to any number of repeated viewings. The only flaw that I can see is a somewhat contrived climax - Ray had this problem in a few of his films.

I do have to give special praise to the two leads. Mukherjee and Chatterjee are just brilliant in the film. The supporting cast is also uniformly excellent.

Mahangar captures the middle class culture of post-independence Calcutta effectively. The movie shows the emotional crisis of a family caught between family tradition and increasing expenses. The husband-wife relationship starts unraveling under the stress of brand new corporate identity and financial comfort the wife discovers. Its interesting how the other family members come to terms and make peace with the changed dynamics when they see their own gratification with the higher salary. Ray has done an exceptional job in uplifting the role of the Indian wife and depicting an almost perfect superwoman character – rising to the occasion and being the pillar of support at home and at work. Throughout these changes in lifestyle, she continues to rely upon her husband for moral support. The ending is well scripted – in their current dire situation, the couple finds mutual confidence and solace to continue the struggle and dream.

I loved this film. Madhabi Mukherjee is gorgeous and so engaging, with the virtuosic ability to represent the stresses of a changing Calcutta through a simple glance. Mahanagar is a fascinating dramatic case study of the collision of modernism and traditionalism that produced a sociocultural duality/dichotomy in twentieth-century India's urban landscapes.

We see all sorts of manifestations of duality in Mahanagar. The tension-cum-rivalry of Arati and Subrata is, of course, the most obvious manifestation. However, we also have the duality of the new- generation Arati/Subrata and the old-generation Sarojini/Priyogopal (Subrata's mother and father) and Arati, who wears traditional clothing and speaks Bengali, versus Edith, the English-speaking Anglo-Indian in Western dress. These instances of duality speak directly to the moment in which things began to make a 180-degree shift in India, when women became the breadwinners of the household and traditional gender norms became subsumed by sexual liberation.

With a leading lady as precise as Mukherjee, Ray was able wrap these complex coterminous processes up in a relatively tidy package. Mahanagar is essential viewing.

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

According to Roger Ebert, "the power of this extraordinary film seems to come in equal parts from the serene narrative style of director Satyajit Ray and the sensitive performances of the cast members." He described Mahanagar as "one of the most rewarding screen experiences of our time".

Ebert, as usual, is spot on. This film was a stunning surprise for me. With very few exceptions, I have found the "great" Indian films to be a let down, and the modern Bollywood film is just unbearable. This was, however, a treat and a great exploration of culture. The idea of women working and how that affects the esteem of their husbands is not unique to India, but there are certain themes -- the reaction of her father-in-law! -- that are unlike what you might see in an American film.

Watching this captivating film at the height of the global coronavirus pandemic, a time when the world seems so bleak and disrupted, I am truly uplifted by its very hopeful, prevailing message. Here we have a couple, the Mazumdars of 1963 Calcutta (now Kolkata), who are faced with the responsibility of providing for three generations of their family while their financial future suddenly collapses all around them without advance notice. At this time of widespread misery--physical, emotional, and financial--throughout the world, this film, directed so brilliantly by Satyajit Ray, could not have arrived by way of Turner Classic Movies at a more appropriate time.

As the story of one struggling family unfolds, the film explores very important themes concerning traditional gender roles, social upheaval in India at the time of its early independence from British rule, and, most importantly, the ability to maintain respectability and moral integrity during difficult economic circumstances. Instead of the director preaching his ideas to us by repeatedly hitting us over the head with them, as is so common among the many mediocre films of today, he more effectively shows us his views through the actions of very sympathetic, complex characters. In this success, he is greatly assisted by the talents of the entire cast, most notably Madhabi Mukherjee, who plays Arati, the newly employed wife. Even the boss, played so ably by Haradjan Bannerjee, cannot be dismissed easily as a narrow-minded bigot without our consideration for his own background, his own story. The elderly father of the house, who understandably feels cheated by life, reveals another, very important set of tragic and distressing circumstances of impoverishment and dependence that especially hit home to me as a senior citizen. Nothing that is presented here is simplistic or superficial.

In her introduction of the film, TCM's Alicia Malone, stated that director Ray was inspired by the post-World War II movies of Vittorio De Sica, one of my favorite directors ("Two Women", "Bicycle Thieves", and "Umberto D"). Personally, I would have liked more "on location" photography of 1963 Calcutta in the way that De Sica so dramatically captured post war Rome during the 1950's, but I was very appreciative of the street scenes that were featured here. After this favorable introduction of his work, I will be sure to pay much closer attention to the films of Satyajit Ray in the future.

The struggle between traditional and modern values in Indian life is the centerpiece of The Big City (Mahanagar), a charming and totally engaging film by the great Indian director Satyajit Ray. Unlike Ray's earlier works which were centered either on the very poor or the very affluent, The Big City deals with the life of an ordinary middle class Bengali family and spotlights the changing role of women in India during the 1960s. Based on a short story by Narendranath Mitra and set in Calcutta, Subrata Mazumdar (Anil Chatterjee) is the sole breadwinner in his family but does not make enough to support his extended family that includes his wife Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee), their young son Pintu (Prasenjit Sarkat), sister (Jaya Bhaduri), father (Haren Chatterjee) and mother (Sefalike Devi).

Subrata's father is a retired school teacher whose pupils have gone on to considerable success as doctors, lawyers, and businessmen while he has slid further into poverty. When the aging patriarch is in need of new eyeglasses, he turns to one of his former pupils to help him out. After Subrata casually mentions that a friend's wife has gone to work, Arati gets the idea of supplementing the family's meager income by getting a job herself but this idea is looked on with disdain by the traditionally-minded family. A "cold war" prevails in the household as Arati takes a job selling sewing machines in affluent neighborhoods, enrolling the woman of the house who is always at home.

After several abortive attempts in which she backs off after hearing the sound of a guard dog, Arati settles into her job and begins to thrive, gaining increased self-confidence and inner strength. Even young Pintu is mollified when his mother brings him home some toys after getting paid. Influenced by co-worker Edith (Vicky Redwood), an Anglo-Indian, Arati begins to wear lipstick and sunglasses and is more assertive with her boss (Haradhan Bannerjee) but her husband is resentful and complains that he doesn't know her anymore. Although Edith persuades her boss to grant the workers a commission on sales, he seems to resent her Westernized manner and feels more comfortable with Arati whom he offers a promotion.

Due to a run on the bank in which he is an employee, Subrata is laid off and this causes additional stresses and strains in the family but their love for each other transcends economics and allows Arati to stand up to her boss on a matter of principle. The Big City is not as sweeping in scope or as in-depth a character study as some of Ray's more well-known films, but it is an honest and compelling portrait of a young woman's discovery of herself with strong performances by Mr. Chatterjee and especially Ms. Mukherjee, who would go on to star in one of Ray's most acclaimed films, Charulata.

The mainstram movies of Satyajit Ray focuses it's light into revealing the inner beauty of everyday's life. This come true with a bazzle like narrative. But this movie lacks a strong script I think. The story might have been some twists, thinking scope and a better insight. It's not a must watch but a better watch. Happy watching!

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.

Ray is one of my all-time favorite directors, and this is one of his best. MAHANAGAR is instantly notable for the beautiful cinematography and for remarkable performances from all - from start to finish the film has a flowing, hypnotic gracefulness which compliments the story of a woman overcoming her (and her family's) apprehensions as she takes a job out of financial necessity, only to discover her independence and emerge with a newfound sense of confidence. While perhaps intended as an examination of the changing role of women (at least middle class women) in Indian society after independence, it's observations also have a global resonance - Ray's talent for highlighting specific pieces of Indian culture and society and using them to make great human insights that anyone would get is at it's peak here, and this film prefigures a number of other, similarly themed films to emerge globally through the 60s.

I'm biased towards Ray, but this is a flawless film, very highly recommended.

Mahanagar is a masterpiece of Satyajit Ray. It shows how good a movie can be and how great he is. I feel proud of being bengali as I can understand this movie and feel sorry for those who will never be able to taste this excellent work of Satyajit Ray.

It shows how a woman or only a woman can stand against injustice, sacrifice her crying need for a colleague's insult. It is a lesson for us to learn.

The film is directed with all his excellence by Satyajit Ray. Every sceen of the movie shown with subtle care. I failed to find out a single scene as irrelevant or I never felt that there can be a better presentation of any scene shown in the movie. It clearly portraits a poverty ridden bengali family which still have some morale. The movie is really worth watching

A woman takes a job to support her family much to the disgrace of her unemployed husband and invalid father-in-law. Only Satyajit Ray could have made a social comment on the changing face of India interesting with touching performances by all.

My introductory piece of Satyajit Ray's canon, it is first and foremost an ineffable experience, a common-or-garden story of a young Bengali housewife takes on a job as a door-to-door salesgirl to support her family in Calcutta in the 50s, under Ray's astute concoction, it throbs with human tenderness, realistic cognisance of its society and glinting performances.

Arati (Mukjerjee) and Subrata (Anil Chatterjee) are a young couple has a toddler son Pintu (Sarkar), they live under the same roof with Subrata's parents, his teenage sister Bani (Bhaduri), and Subrata is the only breadwinner of the household, he takes extra work as a private tutor, in addition to his post as a bank clerk. Still, they can barely make ends meet, so Arati, decides to looking for a job with the hesitant acquiescence of Subrata. In the traditional and patriarchal universe, no husband is willing to let his beautiful wife dabble into a business world unless it is absolutely necessary, certainly Subrata's parents are strongly against the idea, but under the circumstances, it seems to be the only makeshift plan.

Never been worked before, Arati is thrusted into an eye-opening, horizon-widening new world, although his boss Himangshu (Bannerjee) is a smooth-talking businessman, Arati discreetly brings about decorum in her daily canvassing work (her targets are mainly upper-middle class housewives), and makes a good fist of it. Also she strikes a rapport with fellow salesgirls, especially the Anglo-Indian Edith (Redwood), whose modern lifestyle begins to influence her, things such as lipsticks and sunglasses are duly entering Arati's quotidian life.

At home, the domestic tension has never dissipated, Subrata's ailing father (Haren Chatterjee) protests with silence treatment, as a former teacher who now has no income, he even abases himself to cadge for largesse from his well-to-do former pupils (the doctor and lawyer sort), which is bartered with his own dignity, a scathing commotion of pathos is achieved without ever sensationalising the subject.

Things aggravate in a dramatic slope when Subrata loses his job on the same day when Arati is supposedly to hand in her resignation out of her own will, on the grounds that Subrata will procure a sideline from his friend. All out of a sudden, Arati inadvertently becomes the only source of income for the family, she makes no dithering to demand an immediate raise from Himangshu, an out-of-left-field bid one might not expect from her reserved nature. Her subtle transformation from a compliant housewife to a liberated woman who can competently take on a more independent role in the society is the main arc of this patiently and non-intrusively limned narrative, a rare fruition considering the movie's time and place, taking the paragraph where Arati has to keep up appearances by inventing a tall tale (with Subrata's presence which is unbeknownst to her) in front of a potential buyer, it potently testifies that the film safeguards a coolheaded spin not to bring its heroine to perfection, she lies out of vanity (or to save her and her husband's faces), it is foibles like this make her a fleshed-out persona making progress in the real world borne out of a plain fiction, Ray is a crack storyteller, who is incredibly well-versed in human nature and refuses to go on board with stilted emotional manipulation in his pinpoint methodology.

Also Ray adroitly projects his dissent concerning the social maladies onto his prudently shaped characters, the non-existent pensions for the elderly, the fraudulent nature of banking business and the injustice prevails in workplace (the case of built-in racism here). In the final battle, Arati has to fight for her sense of justice in an impulsive way, and she is ever so vulnerable and doubtful after that, then, propelled by a promised job opportunity, Subrata, who, although has been constantly fretted by a mixed bag of frustration, anxiety, jealousy and low self-esteem, which in the lesser hands, would in no time unleash himself into a hysterical breakdown, pouring scorn on those nearby, however, arrives when he is most needed and sensibly does the right thing and sends an auspicious message in the end. Once the dissection is done, we still need hope to carry on against the unfavourable situation, to right the wrong, to live and hold our heads high, thanks to Ray's profound accomplishment as a cinematic raconteur, his unostentatious aesthetic codes and a perspicacious cast headlined by Mukherjee, whose unfeigned impersonation is exceedingly heartfelt, THE BIG CITY is simply a marvel to behold, to cherish and to ruminate.

India, 1963. When hubby (played by Anil Chatterjee) loses his job, Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee) goes to work, and now the whole extended family depends on her income for support. But they don't like it. And they let her know they disapprove. It was 1963, so even american husbands wouldn't have approved of the wife working, much less in calcutta. Another LONG two hour epic. So much talking. It's good, but jeez.... over two hours. Couldn't they have left some on the cutting room floor?? Based on a story by Narendranath Mitra. Had several works made into films. Directed by Satyajit Ray. Won an honorary award in 1992 for his body of work.

If you ask what is the basic difference between Ray movie and any other good movie, you would get various answers. A movie critic might vouch for 'subtlety', a photographer might be awed with the frames, a musician would go with the background score, a storyteller might fall in love with the characters and a Bengali with 'everything'. For me, what stands out in Ray movie is 'Honesty' Be it the innocence of country life or the chaotic city life, Ray's portrayals of his characters and situations are so honest that you wouldn't feel for a second that you are in front of the screen and not in it. One thing I noticed in both the Ray movies I have seen in last 2 days ( Pather Panchali and Mahanagar), that he is not trying to tell us a story. But he just tries to paint the life of ordinary human beings, the first in a village and now this one in the big city of Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta)

Mahanagar addresses the dilemmas faced by common man - progressiveness vs conservatism, opportunism vs ethics, practicality and social practices. A man is confused should he let himself depend on his wife's income ignoring parental criticisms or stick to hunger and poverty owing to his joblessness. A woman is confused whether she should raise voice against her benign boss who has helped her in her troubles but has been unfair to her friend. A retired teacher is jealous of his well-to-do students and faces the perplexity of asking them a favour.

Watching 'Mahanagar' is like reading a rich literature, which might not have a compelling story, but has a subtle lyrical description.

(Originally posted @ weirdo-on-movies.blogspot.com)

Have u heard the Tracy Chapman song "Subcity" ?

"Thank You Mr President for Disregarding me!"

-Mahanagar (The Big City) carries the same vein of faceless struggle,only with infinitely more subtle nuances. The revolts of Madhobi against the trying times both at home and professionally,forced job seeking,uncomfortable but obvious rise to "the man (bread winner)in the house' status,the gradual acceptance of that by her family esp the patriarchal father-in-law and the final revolt for the sake of ideals- against the backdrop of a devastated Calcutta under the stream of refugees arriving daily from East-Pakistan------can't have a masterpiece better than that. Coupled to it her husband's vulnerability at being unemployed,he doesn't want but can't help feeling inferior to his wife whom he loves--each shade is crafted with poise and care of a virtuoso.Moreover Ray addresses the issue of reverse-racism,the agonies of a ill treated race manifest, when the Indian manager fires the Anglo Indian employee just because of her Anglo-Christian roots.The ending is almost philosophical in its expansive acceptance of one's fate and belief that some hope must be still left.Watch this movie to realize the angst of urban poverty in one of post-world war II history's most turbulent times.