In a struggling Calcutta household in the 1950s, a housewife (Madhabi Mukherjee) takes a job as a door-to-door saleswoman to help make ends meet, only to find that her newfound success has unexpected repercussions throughout her family—especially in her marriage. Satyajit Ray’s sensitively filmed and optimistic story of female empowerment was India’s submission for the 1963 Foreign Language Oscar and the Best Director winner at the Berlin Film Festival in 1965.

Director: Satyajit Ray. Cast: Anil Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Jaya Bhaduri, Haren Chatterjee. 1963. 136 minutes. India. B&W. Bengali. 35mm. 

Restored by the Satyajit Ray Preservation Project through a collaboration of the Academy Film Archive, the Merchant-Ivory Foundation, the Film Foundation, and the Packard Humanities Institute. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

All film screenings of Satyajit Ray: 1955-1968 are available here.