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The Big City

মহানগর

  • Status: Released
  • 27-09-1963
  • Runtime: 136 min
  • Score: 7.8
  • Vote count: 93

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.

Madhabi Mukherjee

Arati Mazumdar

Anil Chatterjee

Subrata Mazumdar

Haren Chatterjee

Priyogopal Mazumdar

Haradhan Bandopadhyay

Himangshu Mukherjee

Vicky Redwood

Edith Simmons

Jaya Bachchan

Bani Mazumdar

Sefalika Devi

Sarojini Mazumdar

Prasenjit Sarkar

Pintu Mazumdar

Shyamal Ghoshal

Anupam

Gitali Roy

Anupam's Wife

Tapan Chatterjee

Subrata's Colleague

Bibhuti Bhushan Banerjee

Manisha Chakraborty

Arun Chowdhury

Pritish Dey

Shailen Ganguli

Anuradha Guha

Jyoti Kripalani

Samir Lahiri

Ashok Mitra

Tarak Mitra

Shailen Mukherjee

Shailesh Mukherjee

Shila Pal

Smita Sinha

Sayantan Chatterjee

<b>Rating: 9.5 / 10</b> <blockquote> <i>"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."</i> <br><br> — Milton Berle </blockquote> 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.