Mrinal Sen's second feature film was the first film banned in India. In 1958 the Government prevented its release for two months. Set in turbulent 'thirties, it is the story of a poor Chinese hawker selling his silk on the streets of Calcutta. At the time China was repulsing the brutal attack of militarist Japan, which prompted an outraged Rabindranath Tagore to write to his friend in Japan, the great poet Noguchi: "I wish your countrymen, whom I love so much, not success but remorse."