Beautiful and restrained, Madhabi Mukherjee powerfully highlights Mahanagar (The Big City) as a traditional Bengali housewife who transforms into a modern working woman in 1960's Calcutta. She is an incredible actress, who effectively communicates through her eyes, facial expressions, and pitch perfect body language. This is the first of three Satyajit Ray films that she carries—Charulata (The Lonely Wife) and Kapurush (The Coward) follow. Mukherjee precisely matches Ray's intentions; no director has ever presented traditional or contemporary Indian family life as intimately or realistically.

Although shot on location in Calcutta, most of Mahanagar's scenes take place inside close quarters. Subrata Mazumdar (Anil Chatterjee) and his extended family live in a small apartment, but doesn't earn enough to adequately support his father (Haren Chatterjee), mother (Sefalike Devi), sister (Jaya Bhaduri), wife Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee), and young son (Prasenjit Sarkar). At this time traditional extended Bengali families lived simply with one primary breadwinner. A retired teacher, Subrata's father poignantly explains the mixed pride and frustration of seeing his former students go on to lucrative careers in medicine, law, and business while he continues a life of abject poverty. He realizes that unfair distribution of wealth is inherently unfair; however, he steadfastly declares that he and his wife are entitled to their son's support.

Upon hearing that a friend's wife is working as a tutor, Arati decides to take a job as a salesgirl to relieve the financial burden. Talk about "culture shock," Arati's boss (Haradhan Bannerjee) explains how the new hires will sell knitting machines door-to-door among the wealthier residents of the city. Ray shows Arati's initial tentative attempts—she abruptly bolts when an aggressive looking man answers the door and hesitates during her second call, but she adjusts amazingly well. Befriending Anglo-Indian co-worker Edith (Vicky Redwood), Arati learns to wear lipstick, sunglasses, and speak more boldly to contacts, as she eventually becomes the firm's bests salesgirl.

Arati clearly models herself after Edith, recognizing that her assertive westernized manner is the key to success in this new profession. Edith is selected as the leader for the five salesgirls, and she negotiates better pay for them. This doesn't please the boss, who would much rather deal with the more demure Arati. This will eventually lead to a crucial confrontation that illustrates Arati's growth and liberation.

Her success isn't taken so well at home. Subrata's parents especially object to Arati defying custom—her father-in-law going so far as to declare a silent "cold war." Subrata initially goes along with Arati's plan, but we see him weaken proportionally as Arati grows in strength. Just as he's about to secure a secondary part time job and insist that his wife terminate her job, his bank closes. He further declines and contrasts with his wife even more; he appears far more immature and less able to cope with urban life than Arati; however, the two maintain a strong love for each other that carries them. Although the ending is left somewhat ambiguous, it's evident that this Bengali family is going to survive the big city.

Ray frequently paints visual portraits of transition—how traditional people cope in contemporary India. Never concentrating on plot, he focuses on character and family life the same way that Ozu illustrates post-war Japanese life. Despite its quiet and contemplative subject matter, Mahanagar remains compelling—educating westerners about the radical changes that have taken place in modern India and some exceptionally fine acting that comes across more like a documentary than fiction. Fortunately, this is now available on DVD in the U.S. through Netflix.