Amidst the Dickensian crowds of destitution and opportunity, this was Ray’s first film to be set in Calcutta, his place of birth. We are introduced to the financial struggles of Subrata (Anil Chatterjee) a bank clerk whose wife, Arati – played with nuanced sensitivity by Madhabi Mukherjee – breaks from the patriarchal tradition of ‘housewife’ in order to join the workplace and help support their household. Arati becomes a door-to-door salesman and her growing independence begins to threaten stifling traditions around family and gender.
Often considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Ray constructs a portrait of social morality through the subtlety and depth he brings to depicting human relationships. This is cinema as a poetic form of compassion.