An Analysis of Ritwik Ghatak’s Bari Theke Paliye From the Perspective of Exile, Childhood, and Architecture

This article examines Ritwik Ghatak’s Bari Theke Paliye (1959) through childhood, displacement, and the built environment. Through qualitative close analysis of domestic interiors, streets, bridges, and encounters, it asks how a child’s changing sense of place reveals urban inequality. Kanchan’s voluntary flight from his village differs from Partition-era forced migration, yet his encounters with displaced adults connect the journey to histories of lost livelihoods and belonging. The film contrasts the city’s promise of freedom with precarious work, anonymity, and collective violence. Architecture emerges as an active force that can discipline, shelter, exclude, or enable connection; home and city remain ambivalent rather than fixed opposites