The Big City
About The Big City
In a cramped Calcutta flat, Arati keeps house for her husband Subrata, their boy Pintu, his sister Bani, and his parents. Money is short. She takes a door-to-door job selling Autonit knitting gadgets. His parents hate the idea. She learns the work, befriends the Anglo-Indian saleswoman Edith, and starts to earn. Subrata asks her to quit. Then his bank closes in the Calcutta crashes and her pay is the only pay. The boss, Mr. Mukherjee, raises her and lines her up to lead a group. He fires Edith, saying she faked an illness. Arati thinks the firing is because Edith is Anglo-Indian. Mukherjee will not apologize. Arati resigns. Outside, Subrata tells her she was right to refuse the injustice. They walk off looking for work.
Cast & crew
More about The Big City
Satyajit Ray wrote, directed, and composed the score, from Narendranath Mitra’s story Abataranika. Subrata Mitra photographed. Dulal Dutta edited. It was shot in the first half of 1963 in Calcutta and released on 27 September 1963. A published length is 131 minutes; another listing says 128. Madhabi Mukherjee is Arati. Anil Chatterjee is Subrata. Jaya Bhaduri, in her first screen role, is Bani. The Bengali title is Mahanagar.
Themes
Background
The bank closures in the plot sit in the Calcutta crashes of the early 1960s. Arati’s job starts as a way to cover a bank salary and becomes the only salary.
Making
This is the first Ray feature set entirely in Calcutta, and the first time the city on his screen is the contemporary middle-class one, not a period reconstruction. Bhaduri’s Bani is a first film role, before the Hindi leads.
Look
Subrata Mitra shot the flat, the door-to-door rounds, and the office where Arati quits.
Music
Satyajit Ray composed the score.
Preservation
A print of the 1963 Bengali feature survives.
Notes
- Priyogopal, the retired teacher, will not take Arati’s money. He visits old pupils, collapses on the stairs, and later lets her look after him.
- Subrata finds lipstick in her purse and hears her tell a client that he is a successful businessman.
- Mukherjee offers Subrata help finding a job, in the same office where Edith is dismissed.
- Ray won the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlin in 1964.
- India submitted the film for the 36th Academy Awards. It was not nominated.
- Haren Chatterjee, Haradhan Banerjee, and Vicky Redwood are also billed.
Awards
- Silver Bear for Best Director, Berlin International Film Festival (1964)
Scenes
- Arati starts knocking on doors with the knitting gadgets.
- Edith’s lipstick and the new pay change the flat.
- The bank shuts. Her envelope is what they live on.
- She puts her resignation on Mukherjee’s desk after Edith is fired.
- Subrata, waiting outside, says she was right.
Influenced by
- Abataranika (Narendranath Mitra)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (মহানগর - বাংলা চলচ্চিত্র (১৯৬৩).webm)
