A woman’s place is with her cooking-pots: that is the firmly articulated belief of Subrata Mazumdar, a young bank clerk struggling to support his entire extended family on a meagre salary, and he is duly horrified when his wife Arati (a ravishing, spirited performance from Madhabi Mukherjee) offers to help by going out to work as a ‘salesgirl’.
Satyajit Ray’s wonderfully enjoyable portrait of mid-50s Calcutta, a society still adjusting to independence, displays warmth, wit and genuine insight into its large, multi-generational cast of characters, including Arati’s conservative old father-in-law, her studious teenage sister-in-law, and her benevolently despotic boss.
For this new restoration, undertaken in India, the original negative was scanned at a high resolution (2K), enabling the film’s epic scale and intimate detail – from the portrayal of big city life to the exquisite play of emotions on Arati’s face – to emerge in greater beauty and clarity.
This is a wonderful opportunity to see this classic from Ray on the big screen, a rare foray into social satire, and a reminder of his very unique talents.