Another of Satyajit Ray's contemporary problem pictures, this one focussed on the glutted job market. There is an Ozu-esque sadness in Ray's vision of white-collar urban life and of the adulteration of old values in the modern world. What makes the vision convincing -- and more, disarming -- is the unimpeachable old-fashionedness of the director's methods: the brisk montage sequences that suggest he has been watching old Warner Brothers movies on the late show; the dark, smudged, charcoaly black-and-white image that corresponds rather well to the movie's overall pessimism; and the trustingness in such dog-eared narrative devices as having an actor slip on a banana peel (no kidding). (1976) — Duncan Shepherd
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