Kanchenjungha: Why Satyajit Ray's first film based on an original screenplay is his most unique one

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. His films have received worldwide critical acclaim and won him several awards, honours and recognition — both in India and elsewhere. In this column starting 25 June 2017, we discuss and dissect the films of Satyajit Ray (whose 96th birth anniversary was this May), in a bid to understand what really makes him one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. In his long filmmaking career, Satyajit Ray had mostly adapted the literary works of others. In other words, for most part, he had interpreted the works of other writers. It was not until 1962 that Ray plunged headlong into his first act of pure creation, for which he wrote an original screenplay right from scratch and then went ahead to make it into a film. The background to the writing of this screenplay is interesting. Ray was initially toying with the idea of a film in which a family goes on a picnic. He had thought of the beginning of the film, and the ending – both revolving around a family photograph but with different interpretations, as revealed through the events and interactions in the body of the film. When this idea did not materialise for logistical reasons, Ray converted the seed of the idea into another story set in the hill station of Darjeeling, where a large family gathers for a holiday. That film, which went on to become perhaps the most unique film of Ray’s career, was Kanchenjungha. The events of the film take place in real time, in a late afternoon near the Observatory Hill road of Darjeeling. Rai Bahadur Indranath Roy Chaudhuri’s family has come to the Himalayan hill station for a holiday, and they are supposed to head back to Kolkata the next day. Indranath himself is a highly successful and affluent man – chairman of as many as five companies. But he is not without his faults. He is vain, brash and a British-sympathizer, who has the tendency of looking down upon people and sealing their fates with his own judgements, decisions and proclamations. His wife Labanya is a docile and submissive woman – quite aware of her husband’s nature, and yet unable to vocalise her protests. The elderly couple have three children. The eldest is Anil – a hopeless and incorrigible womaniser who talks too much and thinks too little. There’s the elder daughter Anima, who is married to a reticent man named Shankar. This couple are going through a failed marriage and are barely holding on to it for the sake of their daughter. The youngest of Indranath’s children is the beautiful Monisha – a young woman of independent spirit and thought. Also in the family is Jagadish – Labanya’s widower brother, and an ornithologist by passion. Other than the family, three other people converge at the misty hill station. There’s a young, affluent and eligible bachelor named Banerjee – a suitor for Monisha, armed with the blessings of her autocratic father. Then there’s an old man who used to be Anil’s private tutor several years ago. And finally, there’s this old man’s nephew – a young unemployed man named Ashok. As the film progresses, the paths of all these characters cross, and through their interactions and conversations, the fragmented narrative moves forward. [caption id=“attachment_4280713” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Satyajit Ray’s Kanchenjungha is a film where the ‘mood’ changes with the change in the weather[/caption] Quite early on in the film, we realise that Banerjee is about to propose marriage to Monisha, and that the patriarch of the family is viewing this ‘arrangement’ as a matter of great social and financial benefit to himself. We also realize that Monisha, who has seen the outcome of such loveless marriages in as many as two instances right there in her own family (one of her mother, the other of her elder sister), is hesitant to accept the impending proposal. In fact, she takes refuge in the company of Ashoke, who she knows is poor and timid, just to escape from the barrage of hints that her suitor keeps throwing at her throughout the afternoon. Anima, in turn, is torn between her lover and the husband she does not love. Shankar has recently found out about his wife’s affair, and is calmly transactional and perfectly willing to discuss an amicable divorce. Labanya has remained voiceless in the face of her husband’s fury all her life, but after she has seen her elder daughter’s home crumbling in front of her eyes, she is understandably worried about the fate of her younger one. Unable to voice her opinion, she seeks support from her brother Jagadish, who promises to help her. Ashoke finds himself in a decidedly uncomfortable position amidst all this. He knows that the Rai Bahadur can get him that coveted job that has been eluding him for months. But his self-esteem does not allow him to suck up to the vain old man, who wears his love for the British on his sleeves, and does not hesitate to discount the contributions of our freedom fighters. Kanchenjungha is a film that is far ahead of its time. For one, it is an experiment in filmmaking within the limited confines of both time and space. Secondly, it is a film in which the ‘mood’ changes with the change in the weather. The film begins when the sun is shining brightly upon Darjeeling – everything seems in place, everyone seems happy and calm. Then comes the clouds, and ugly secrets keep tumbling out of the proverbial closet, one after the other. Finally, the mist rolls in, covering the quaint little town, and we begin to witness unmistakable hints of doubt in every single character’s mind. Finally, when the mist clears, those doubts turn into decisions of various kinds, which finally culminate into a happy ending as the sun begins to shine brightly once again – this time revealing the majestic Kanchenjunga before our eyes. It is almost impossible to believe that Ray wrote the screenplay of Kanchenjungha in ten days, and even more so to believe that he wrapped up the shooting of the film (his first colour film, no less) in as few as 24 days. A master of thrift – both in the making of the film and in its content itself – Satyajit Ray created a motion picture whose technical brilliance, layered messages and superlative performances had no match anywhere in the world. One wonders how he did that, and perhaps the answer lies partially in his creative genius and partially in what he saw as the core source of his inspiration – the Himalayas. For it was the terrace of the Windermere in Darjeeling where he wrote the screenplay of Kanchenjungha, and although he makes one of the characters in his film say the following words, we know, by a fair estimate, that it is, in fact, Satyajit Ray describing how he came around to pulling off the greatest creative stunt of his career – “Maybe it is this place that has got something to do with it… I have never seen anything like this before. The majestic Himalayas, these silent pine-trees, this strange play of sunlight, clouds and mist. It’s so unreal, almost like a dream state. My head was in a whirl, and everything seemed to change before my eyes. As if I wasn’t myself anymore, as if I was someone special. A hero! A giant! As if I was full of courage…careless…undaunted. And as if no one could stop me anymore." * Bhaskar Chattopadhyay is an author and translator. His translations include 14: Stories That Inspired Satyajit Ray, and his original works include the mystery novels Patang, Penumbra and Here Falls The Shadow.