Mahanagar (The Big City)

Direction, Music: Satyajit Ray

Direction, Music: Satyajit Ray

Screenplay: Satyajit Ray, based on the short story Abataranika by Narendranath Mitra
Cinematography: Subrata Mitra
Editing: Dulal Dutta
PrincipalCast: Madhabi Mukherjee, Anil Chatterjee, Haren Chatterjee, Sefalika Devi, Jaya Bhaduri
Production: R D Bansal Productions (India)

Year: 1963
Format: Black and White

In Mahanagar, a lower-middle-class family finds itself financially strapped. The young, intelligent wife decides with her husband`s consent to get a job and help support the family. However, it turns out to be a decision that rocks the household to its foundations, destabilising generations of carefully cultivated ‘tradition’.

As the wife goes out to work, she discovers a new life, gains self-confidence, and becomes the anchor that holds the family together. Her husband, Subrata, feels insecure after he loses his job. He suffers as he watches her go out while he sits in bed and scans newspapers for jobs. Gradually, they begin to drift apart.

Awards: Certificate of Merit, New Delhi, 1964
Silver Bear, Berlin, 1964

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