Kanchenjungha

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Movie
Original title কাঞ্চনজঙ্ঘা
(Kanchenjungha)
Country of production India
original language Bengali / English
Publishing year 1962
length 97 minutes
Rod
Director Satyajit Ray
script Satyajit Ray
production NCA Productions
music Satyajit Ray
camera Subrata Mitra
cut Dulal Dutta
occupation

Kanchenjungha ( Bengali : কাঞ্চনজঙ্ঘা , Kāñcanjaṅghā , Kanchanjangha ) is an Indian feature film by Satyajit Ray from 1962.

action

It's the last day of a wealthy Kolkata industrial family's vacation in Darjeeling . The view of Kanchanjangha is still overcast . According to the patriarchal head of the family Indranath Choudhury, the younger daughter Monisha is supposed to marry the foreign Indian and businessman Banerjee. So that the last chance of an official marriage proposal from Banerjee does not pass, the family tries to let the two get to know each other undisturbed. The older daughter Anima has been unhappily married to the notorious gambler Sankar for 10 years and has a six-year-old daughter Tuklu. The patriarch's brother-in-law and son enjoy their hobbies - ornithology one, photography and beautiful women the other. Then there is Ashok, who is in his twenties, from Kolkata with his uncle, who wants to find him a job at Choudhury. The action takes place exclusively on the Bhanu Bhakta Sarani Loop and The Mall in Darjeeling.

Mainly in pairs and in different constellations, they are involved in conversations that take place in parallel. Here you stroll through the pedestrian areas of Darjiling.

The conversations between Banerjee and Monisha are a question-and-answer game to exchange the respective basic ideas about marriage and the attitude to life. The conversation is a one-sided question from Banerjee and a distant, polite, but ostentatiously uninterested answer from Monisha. The conversation between the two is interrupted several times by conversations between Ashok and Monisha, where the situation is almost reversed. Her interest is clear and she asks him questions freely, but he is a little intimidated by her higher status at first.

In contrast to this is the discussion between Anima and her husband Sankar. He reveals that he knows about their affair, which began before the marriage, and confronts her. When she suggests that the reason for this is love, he asks why she married him. Answer: Nobody ever went against Father's wishes. He offers her a divorce.

Fog drifts up the slopes of Darjeeling. A bagpipe orchestra in tartan clothes and drums plays on The Mall.

Choudhury meets Ashok. They get into a conversation that is more like a monologue-like lecture by Choudhury on individual responsibility. He is decidedly Anglophil and extols the contributions of the British to the country using the example of Darjeeling, which was previously just a lepcha village. He himself imitates everything British in order to stand out from lower-class Indians through flaunted style. Ashok refuses a well-paid job that Choudhury Ashok offers at the request of his uncle, even though he urgently needs it. Choudhury is offended because he is ignorant of contradiction.

Monisha's mother, Labanya, lets him tell her through her uncle, the ornithologist Jagadish, that she is not under duress and that she should decide according to her inner convictions. Ashok criticizes Monisha's aristocratic superficiality and obviously false courtesy. He impressed her with the fact that he turned down Monisha's father's "Charity" offer.

Banerjee gives up his attempts with the advice that she should come if she is convinced that security is more important than love and that love can later grow out of the feeling of security; now she is free.

Anima does not want a divorce because of their daughter and offers to give up their love affair to save their marriage. She agrees with Sankar on the continuation of the marriage of convenience.

Monisha invites Ashok to visit her in Kolkata. Your affection is real. Choudhury overhears this scene. He realizes that his plan didn't work out, but is unsure what to make of it.

The Kanchanjangha massif emerges from the clouds.

background

Kanchenjungha is Satyajit Ray's first color film. The film is strongly symbolic and strictly structured. It acts like a classic one-act drama in just one day and one place. There is no central figure and the focus is not on an action, but rather on the dialogues, some of which are philosophically and intellectually reflective. With this author's film you can feel Ray's affinity for European cinema. It is reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman's (later) married drama .

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