Trisha Sengupta¹ & Dr. Sanghamitra Baladhikari²
¹,² Assistant Professor, English & Literary Studies, Brainware University.
10.21659/9788197513022.05Abstract
This paper seeks to navigate the representation of the city in the process of urbanisation and its impact on human relationships in Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar (1963) and Anurag Basu’s Life in a…Metro (2007). Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad and Doreen Massey’s relational understanding of space, the paper investigates how the city operates not merely as a backdrop but as an active character shaping identity, agency, and emotions. Ray’s Mahanagar is set in post-independence Calcutta, where the city is portrayed as a place in transition, torn between tradition and modernity. Ray’s nuanced portrayal critiques urban alienation while highlighting resilience. The film also presents the city as both a liberating and an isolating space, mirroring the tension of a newly independent India negotiating gender roles and economic change. In contrast, Life in a…Metro reflects post-liberalisation, globalised Mumbai, characterised by fragmentation, hyper-connectivity, and emotional dislocation. The contemporary Mumbai in the film captures the frenetic pace, emotional isolation, and aspirational conflicts of metropolitan life through interconnected narratives. The film situates the city as a mosaic of lives entangled in ambition, love, and loneliness, revealing the psychic costs of urban anonymity. While Ray captures the tension of a newly urbanising India, Basu’s work mirrors the complexities of globalisation and fractured relationships in a neoliberal city. This paper employs a comparative lens to explore how evolving cinematic urbanisms in Indian films reflect changing social values, economic realities, gendered dynamics of life, and the city as a space of negotiation across decades.
Keywords: Cinema, City, Representation, Urbanisation, Gender, Space.
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Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature
Table of Contents
Urban Imaginaries and Indian Cities in Literature: An Introduction
Dr. Neethu P Antony and Dr. Arpana Venu
Olivia Joseph
Multilingual Metropolis: The Politics of Language and Belonging in Guwahati Through Sheelabhadra’s Fiction
Sangeeta Bhagawati
Spatial (re)orientations and Epic structures of the urban in Fareeda Mehta’s Kali Salwaar
Elroy Pinto
Between Tramline and Traffic Jam: Mapping Indian City through Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar and Anurag Basu’s Life in a…Metro
Trisha Sengupta & Dr. Sanghamitra Baladhikari
Reimagining Kolkata: Subaltern Narratives and the Colonial Urban Dystopia in Kallol Magazine’s Literature
Nandini Gayen
Walking, Writing and Resisting the City: Spatial Tactics and Postcolonial Reimaginings in Janice Pariat’s Everything the Light Touches
Parvin Sultana
Mimesis, Montage and Mapping: A Spatial Analysis of Gangtok City Scapes in the Select Works of Satyajit Ray and Prajwal Parajuly
Dr. Sudakshina Bhattacharya, Dr. Sulagna Mohanty, and Dr. Ankusha Bandyopadhyay
