Satyajit Ray painted a dark and searing examination of urban life in his masterful Calcutta Trilogy; Seemabaddha was the second installment of the trilogy. While Pratidwandi examined the left-wing affiliations of the city’s educated youth, and Jana Aranya portrayed the dark underbelly of the city, in Seemabaddha Ray focused on the corporate side of 1970s Calcutta. The protagonist here is Shyamalendu Chatterjee, a smart, intelligent, ambitious and upwardly mobile young man, who is just a step away from a grand promotion. Around the same time he gets an extended visit by Sudarsana (Tutul), his pretty sister-in-law, he discovers a problem with what ought to have been the company’s latest shipment, which in turn could seriously jeopardize his corporate ambitions. Based on a cue that Tutul gave in jest, he hatches a secret, sinister plan to set things right. The film, straightforward narrative-wise, is in essence a subtle and fascinating character study, as also a probing look into the socio-political commentary. Barun Chanda, as the likeable Sales Manager in a big British firm, is excellent, but the cake is taken by Sharmila Tagore as the enigmatic young lady, whose penetrative mind manages to see beyond the artificiality of Shyamal’s existence. The expertly photographed, marvelously written and crisply paced film, with a terrific finale, leaves its viewers with uncomfortable questions rather than just easy answers.
Director: Satyajit Ray
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Urban Drama
Language: Bengali
Country: India
