THE BIG CITY    1963
(Mahānagar)Directed by Satyajit Ray141 minutesIn Bengali with English subtitles
 

On the surface, this delicate but feisty film is a drama about the destiny of women, set in 1950's Calcutta. But on a more complex level it is also about the deep conflicts that erupt as modernization gathers speed. I could go into the storyline (which is about a wife's struggle for independence), but that misses the real quality of kind of filmmaking. It's clear that the films of Satyajit Ray have a sheer incandescent poetry about them, no matter what the story is. Embittered emotions, a fire in the eyes, all captured in this very special vision of filmmaking.

The works of Satyajit Ray were shown for a while here in the West, but only shortly. They flickered like candles in a strong wind, soon to be extinguished. But in this case that extinguishing wind was the heavy sweep of commercialization, and the rise of the Bollywood sensation. What we have in this director's films is an incredible rapport with his actors (in this case the beautiful Madhabi Mukherjee), plus sublime cinematography, along with the spirit of India as it was in the past. All these things together create something that is not only intoxicating, but also calming and meditative.

This will be a rare high-definition screening screening of what is considered to be one of Satyajit Ray's masterpieces.