Three of Ray's films made between 1970 and 1971 form Calcutta Trilogy, the main characters being seen this time in relation to their work. It is a political trilogy about how we are being shaped, and perhaps misshapen, by our working conditions.
Siddhartho Chowdhury, a brilliant young medical student, is forced to leave his studies after his father's sudden demise. He is forced to navigate the high unemployment rate and the communist socio-political climate of 1960s Calcutta in search of a job. He lives in a flat with his younger, employed sister, revolutionary brother and widowed mother. The strain of the situation ultimately causes him to hallucinate.
The chronicles of Shyamalendu Chatterjee, an ambitious and self-made young man, as he rises his way up the corporate ladder. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 2001.
A bright and idealistic young graduate steels himself for a dog-eat-dog world, only to flounder in a job market packed with thousands of other hopefuls. When he eventually decides to start his own business as a middle-man, he discovers that the world of business does not live up to his lofty ideals. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with The Film Foundation, in 1996.
