Big City/Dvd, Criterion Collection, DVD

THE BIG CITY (Mahanagar), set in mid-1950s Calcutta and directed by the great Satyajit Ray (THE MUSIC ROOM), follows the personal triumphs and frustrations of Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee), who decides, despite the initial protests of her bank-clerk husband, to take a job to help support their family. With remarkable sensitivity and attention to the details of everyday working-class life, Ray gradually builds a powerful human drama that is at once a hopeful morality tale and a commentary on the identity of the contemporary Indian woman.