Calcutta in the early 1960’s. Bhambal supports his wife, his parents, his teenage sister, and his young son. Money is tight, so his wife Arati goes to work. She’s successful and enjoys it, but this nontraditional step throws the household into chaos: her in-laws initiate a “cold war” of silence.

Shot in Ray’s native Kolkata, the film tenderly suffuses the hustle and bustle of an uncaring cityscape with the warmth of minute quotidian details. The tension between tradition and modernity is palpable in this meticulous, empathetic study of marital frustrations and a woman’s quest for autonomy.