The Middleman

Although Ray's later films saw him moving away from his early gentle humanism towards something more concerned with the political and economic problems facing modern India, they remain primarily descriptive rather than works of intense political commitment. Here he deals with a university graduate forced to enter the world of commerce: his confidence eroded by the experience of being interviewed for jobs for which there are literally thousands of applicants, he eventually sets himself up as someone who buys and sells anything. Meanwhile he finds himself reduced to compromising his ideals more and more. Beautifully performed, blessed with Ray's customary sense of balance, and wittily satirising the absurdity of bureaucracy run riot, it makes absording viewing.