MAHANAGAR/THE BIG CITY (Satyajit Ray, 1963)

date watched: April 25, 2009
location: Film Society of Lincoln Center
This film was a part of the "First Light" series in FSLC on Satyajit Ray's films

Our heroine in Charulata/The Lonely Wife returns in Mahanagar/The Big City (techincally, it's not a "return," since Charulata came after Mahanagar), and I don't blame Ray for wanting to cast her again. She has the types of brow-furrows and stares that allow spectators to know her thoughts. Plus, she has the strength to freeze those expressions in front of a camera, most likely glued to her face.

I like to consider myself a forward-thinking woman, and the limitations posed on the main character, Arati, were at times frustrating for me. This frustration was a necessary component, however, and it really gave Arati a lot of power throughout the movie, as we saw the family slowly fraying at the edges without her presence in the house. Especially haunting is the Father's tenacity: he visits his former students, using their skills as credit to his work as a professor; these visits are nothing short of panhandling, despite his external dignity.

I thought the biggest strength of the film was the foil that Arati's husband, Subrata Mazumdar (played by Anil Chatterjee), and Arati's boss, Mr. Mukherjee (played by Haradhan Bannerjee), made up. In the last part of the film, the shadow cast by Subrata on the curtains curiously splits into two (I take this double as the presence of Mr. Mukherjee), as he seriously ponders his wife's new job and its imbrications. The next day, he meets Mr. Mukherjee, who humorously says that they are "two birds of a feather," coming from the same town.


It takes Subrata some time to realize what a great wife he is living with, but the moment of his revelation is truly rewarding. Instead of his earlier statement of "exit husband, enter wife," they will undoubtedly work under the healthy slogan of "enter husband AND wife."