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poster of The Big City
Rating: 7.8/10 by 91 users

The Big City (1963)

Life at home changes when a housewife from a middle-class, conservative family in Calcutta gets a job as a salesperson. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1996.

Directing:
  • Satyajit Ray
Writing:
  • Satyajit Ray
  • Narendranath Mitra
Stars:
Release Date: Fri, Sep 27, 1963

Rating: 7.8/10 by 91 users

Alternative Title:
Mahanagar - US
La gran ciudad - ES
대도시 - KR
A Grande Cidade - BR
La Grande ville - FR
Großstadt - DE
Wielkie miasto - PL
The Big City - CA
The Big City - GB
The Big City: Mahanagar - US
La gran ciudad - CL
Suurkaupunki - FI
Mahanagar - IN
La grande città - IT
ビッグ・シティ - JP
A Grande Cidade - PT
Большой город - SU
Mahanagar - Die große Stadt - DE

Country:
India
Language:
বাংলা
English
Runtime: 02 hour 16 minutes
Budget: $0
Revenue: $0

Plot Keyword: husband wife relationship, mother-in-law, money, calcutta, lipstick, new job, parent-in-law child-in-law relationship, working woman, salesgirl, family disapproval, preserved film, understated, compassionate, earnest, melodramatic

Sayantan Chatterjee

Rating: 9.5 / 10

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."

— Milton Berle
Owing to a banking failure typical of the post-independence India, Subrata(Anil Chatterjee) loses his job and must reconcile with the shortcomings of the situation, his insecurities as his wife Arati(Madhabi Mukherjee) becomes the sole breadwinner of the family. Arati's story feels both intricately real and extremely personal as the narrative flows from the tantrums at home to the politics at the office, and she must learn to be adept at handing either of them as she gets to mingle with other classes and races of the society, breaking through her shyness in both her appearance and her speech. The Big City (মহানগর) leaves us ruminating at the grappling for opportunities at the transience of hope and progress, regardless of race and gender, amongst a myriad of opportunities and the humdrum of the bustling citizens. This work from Ray gains its mammoth significance as he makes the viewers truly manages to care for this simple family with a simple narrative, with a true sense of depth and detail, yet somehow remaining weightless and effortless in depicting the social evolution. A true masterpiece.


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