Leading Indian filmmakers Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen directed their trilogies on Calcutta during the early 1970s (Ray: Pratidwandi, Seemabaddha, Jana Aranya; Sen: Interview, Calcutta 71, Padatik). Distinct in their treatment and ideological standpoints, the films are acute and astute observation of the city in turmoil.
Poverty, political unrest, corruption, violence, moral dilemma, and often hopeless anger of the youth are depicted with sensitivity. In terms of cinematic technique, Ray — though distinct from his earlier approach — seemed to be an observer from the outside. Sen instead plunged headlong into the action, speaking directly to the audience, with the use of newspaper headlines, still images, newsreels, episodic story-telling and disjointed narratives.
The city life, though present intermittently in the early works of these masters, became much more prominent during the late 1960s and ’70s. Calcutta changed rapidly after 1947. The city started to burst at its seams with the rapid population increase with the influx of refugees from eastern Bengal (East Pakistan, now Bangladesh).
