admin Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece, The Big City, manages to deliver a powerful celebration of emancipation yet without antagonising any one person or groups of people; its power lies in its truthfulness.
It tells the story of a young married woman who, through financial need, is driven to find paid work. In doing so, she must find her own self-esteem and overcome the traditional notions of a woman’s place in society. Her pursuit not only enriches her own life, but she emerges stronger and more resilient than her husband ever was.
Ray based the film on a short story by Narendranath Mitra and took inspiration from Italian neo-realism in crafting the film’s noticeable visual design, aided by Subrata Mitra’s stunning cinematography, which emphasises the huge dichotomy between the lower and upper middle classes in India in the 1950s. This film is unique in Ray’s filmography in slightly lacking his artistic poetic touch but it achieves its mission of realism and does indeed feel almost like a documentary, a style which in this case adds to the message and theme of this film, which is only further enabled by the superlative performances most notably by Madhabi Mukherjee.
Mukherjee emits a powerful combination of subtlety and conviction emanant of the movement in patriarchal norms at the time. It is her carefully placed facial expressions and particularly expressive eyes which make her a delight to watch and identify with, making her dialogues seem almost superfluous. It is no wonder that Mukherjee continued to work with Ray on future projects, Charulata and Kapurush.
The theme of gender equality makes The Big City just as relevant today as it was 60 years ago, yet this film touches upon other themes including a critique of capitalism in post-independence Indian society. Madhabi’s need for money overcomes entrenched existing patriarchal values, yet it is precisely these new values of equality and justice she has discovered which ultimately overcomes her need for money. This highlights the importance of such values but excellently does so with a touch of irony as it is the need for money which propels her to defy conventional norms, yet it is her defiance of conventional norms which propels her to abandon her need for money.