Mahanagar : The Big City

With Mahanagar (The big city)(1963) Satyajit Ray explores the pathos of the people living in a modern day city.

Subrata Mazumdar (Anil Chatterjee) is a bank employee. The meagre income he earns is not enough to support his middle class family, which consists of his wife Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee), their son, his retired father (Haren Chatterjee) and mother and his young sister Bani (Jaya Bhaduri). After a few hints from her husband, Arati too decides to take up a job with stiff opposition from the elders, especially the father. Arati finds a job as a sales girl selling knitting machines door to door. Her success notwithstanding, Subrata asks her to quit her job. But as luck would have it, Subrata ends up losing his job due to unforeseen circumstances. Now its Arati who is the ‘man’ of the family. But then everything isn’t smooth sailing in the big city…..Thus begins a journey of struggles and hardships, and one has to be optimistic.

Somehow Mahanagar doesn’t have that poetic flow to it, as the other Ray films I’ve seen, especially Pather Panchali and Charulata (I know they can’t be compared, but then….). But he lends the film a raw feel which is much understated and he’s made a film which was completely modern for its time- about people living in 1950’s Calcutta, and it still holds relevance. The issues he deals with in this film are plenty. Like Arati’s racist boss, who has a strong dislike for her Anglo-Indian colleague Edith or her father-in-law, who has a problem with the women of the house working outside. Even though the movie deals small vagaries of city life, not a second does it leave you bored.

This was Madhabi Mukherjee’s first film with Satyajit Ray, after which she went on to star in his Classic Charulata and Kapurush. The transformation of Arati from a timid housewife to a confident working woman is excellently brought about. She underplays her character without being overly dramatic. Ditto with Anil Chatterjee. Even Haren Chatterjee as the father, who is unapologetic about his views, especially women working, but how he slowly ends up surrendering to the ways of modern times, plays his part well.

The camera work is quite impressive, and so is the way a few scenes have been executed. The scene where Arati is looking at herself in the mirror, with her first pay in her hands- the expression on Madhabi Mukherjee’s face and the scene as such is brilliant. A few of the close-up shots, of the main players, throughout the film, have been very interestingly shot with the play of light and shadow.

A film with interesting insights of city life

Charulata:The Lonely Wife

The closing scene of the movie shows Charulata and the trust-lost Bhupati, hesitantly reaching out to each other, just when the camera freezes, showing us the uncertainty.That's how uncertain I feel, writing about this beautiful film,which has put me in a complete loss of words.

After madly having hunted for a Satyajit Ray film for quite a long time, I finally managed to get my hand over this classic.Based on Rabindranath Tagore's short novel "Nastanirh"(The Broken Nest), this 1964 Bengali film is a masterstroke by one of India's most celebrated directors.

The story is set in late 19th century Calcutta. Charulata/Charu(Madhabi Mukherjee) is an intelligent bored lonely upperclass housewife.Bhupati(played very well by Sailen Mukherjee), loves his wife, but is engrossed in political work and his own printing press.To give her company, he invites her brother Umapada(Shyamal Ghoshal) and sister-in-law Manda(Gitali Roy).In the meanwhile,a happy-go-lucky Amal(Soumitra Chatterjee), Bhupathi's cousin also arrives.Charu and Amal share similar interests in literature and poetry, and on Bhupati's request Amal starts mentoring her, so that her talent in writing wouldn't go wasted.But Charu soon starts harbouring other feelings for Amal.

It is so difficult to write about a film like this, which is so simple yet so complex. Satyajit Ray brilliantly plays with just the basic human emotions so well, nothing overly dramatic. Its the silences that speak more in this movie. The first few minutes of the film, of how Charu observes the outside world through the window using her opera glasses,barely has any dialogues in it.It's just beyond words.It leaves you dumbstruck.

The kind of contrasts he creates within the film and between the characters, are so obvious, yet shown with subtility.The film is so modern in its outlook,making it relevant even in such times.Even the references he makes to Bankim Chandra, show his eye for details.The camera work (Subrata Mitra) throught the movie is exemplary.Satyajit Ray also gives music for the film, which is another highlight.

The beautiful Madhabi Mukherjee as the intelligent, lonely, childless wife,Charulata, plays her part so well, that you believe she is actually Charulata.The kind of chemistry Soumitra Chatterjee and she share is brilliant.

Satyajit Ray considered this film as one of his best and the one with least defects.This classic of a movie should not be missed.