Mahanagar = The big city
(DVD)

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1963.

From a story by Narendranath Mitra.

Special features: Disc 1: Madhabi Mukherjee (new interview with the actor); Satyajit Ray and the modern woman (interview with Satyajit Ray scholar and author Suranjan Ganguly); B.D. Garga's Satyajit Ray (1974 documentary featuring narration by Satyajit Ray and on-set footage from the making of The big city). Disc 2: Kāpurusha = The coward (1965) (a feature film by Ray; starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Haradhan Bannerjee; based on a story by Premendra Mitra); About The coward. Booklet features an essay by scholar Chandak Sengoopta and an interview with Ray by his biographer Andrew Robinson.

Cinematography, Subrata Mitra ; production design by Bansi Chandragupta ; edited by Dulal Dutta.

Anil Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Haradhan Bannerjee, Haren Chatterjee, Vicky Redwood, Jaya Bhuduri, Sefalika Devi, Prasenjit Sarkar.

Set in mid-1950s Calcutta and directed by Satyajit Ray, this story follows the personal triumphs and frustrations of Arati, 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.

The coward: An aspiring screenwriter encounters a former lover, now married, when his car breaks down near her home.

MPAA rating: Not rated.

DVD ; NTSC ; region 1 ; fullscreen (1.33:1) presentation ; Dolby digital mono.

In Bengali, with optional subtitles in English.