FREE ON YOUTUBE Satyajit Ray - Mahanagar

(YOU FIND THE WHOLE FILM WITH ENGLISH subtitles FREE ON YOUTUBE) Mahanagar is highly recommended as one of the greatest cinematic experiments of its time! This is due to the narrative talent of Satyarjit Ray and the beauty of his leading actress Madhabi Mukherjee, who plays with a depth that takes my breath away! She embodies Arati, a young housewife and mother. Her husband's salary isn't enough to live, so Arati has to find a job. Her parents are horrified; no woman should work! However: times have changed. For the first time she comes into contact with other people and social classes. Finally Arati begins to put on make-up. Full of humour Ray now describes how the old father declares the "cold war" to his son-in-law and also the husband must maintain respect for himself in view of his wife's new position. It's remarkable that Ray really cares about this simple family and their problems. Sure, his film is set in India, apparently far away from us. But is that really so? Don't the same problems exist here? Ray's films are "foreign" and yet again not! Every character might as well be living around the corner. Perhaps stupid German comedies with silly starlets are much stranger to us than this 1963 film?