193 - The Big City (Mahanagar), 1963, India. Dir. Satyajit Ray.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

193 - The Big City (Mahanagar), 1963, India.  Dir. Satyajit Ray.

Such a big city.  So many jobs.

Subrata and Arati love one another.

They live together with their daughter and son, and with his father and her mother.

Subrata works to provide for the family.

He has a good job at a bank.

However, his income is not enough to feed all of them.

Arati decides to help.

She is impulsive.

She acts out of her heart.  She makes quick decisions.

She has never worked before, but she wants to help the family.

So she starts with a company that sells knitting machines.  Selling them.  Door to door.  Making only commission.

Arati rings the doorbell.

The dogs begin to bark.

A man answers the door.

She turns away.  She looks back at him.

He asks about her visit.

She shakes her head and walks away.  She walks down the street and stops.  Collects herself.

Arati is scared.  How will she ever be able to sell knitting machines to total strangers?

She tries again.

She asks for the lady of the house.  The man lets her in.  The lady appears.  They have a nice though awkward conversation.  Maybe Arati can do this.

Four women have started with the company at the same time.  Three of them, including Arati, are Bengali and speak Bengali.  One of them, Edith, is Anglo-Indian and speaks English.  Each speaks her own language, and each can understand the other.

The boss has a bias against the Anglo-Indian.  But he favors Arati.

Before long, Arati is making money.

Enough to buy toys for her children and fruit for her father-in-law on his birthday.

He struggles with the new arrangement.  Calcutta is changing, and he has a hard time changing with it.

Subrata's situation grows more difficult when there is a run on the bank where he works.  And he loses his job in an instant.

Just in time for Arati not to quit hers, as she was about to do.

Through all the ups and downs, we believe that they are going to be OK.  They certainly believe it.

Even when both of them are out of a job.

It is a big city.  There are so many jobs.

Subrata and Arati love one another.