Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : the light of the new moon -- Catastrophe and utopia : Ghare Baire, or the household goddess -- The (un)moving image : visuality and the modern in Charulata -- Devi : documenting the decadent, incarnating the modern -- The music room revisited : Jalsaghar, attraction, perception -- Take two : Mahanagar and cinematic imperfection -- Cinema and universality : Apur Sansar -- Conclusion : lateness and cinema.

Presents a study that situates one of the world's greatest filmmakers, the Indian director Satyajit Ray's work within the internationalist spirit of the twentieth century, arguing that his film experiments revive the category of political or 'committed' art.