Kanchenjungha

I think this is a great movie by any standard. This is also a very complex one. People who are familiar with Ray's Apu Triology will find it difficult to grasp the fact that the same ray is the director of this film.

Kanchenjungha deals set in hilly areas deals with 20th century problems in pristine location. Problems that we try to suppress in daily life, seems to get revealed and exposed to everybody else. It is like we are revealing ourselves as Kanchenjungha is exposed through bright sunlight.

Please note that you have to be patient with this movie. It is very different from all other Ray movies. Furthermore, there exists no central character. It is probably the most underrated of all Ray movies.

a truly underrated masterpiece.as a child growing up in a Ray-worshipping family i'd always been told about this gem,but as a child and an adolescent it never made a deep enough impression upon me.after a few hundred truly excellent movies and twenty years later one late night viewing opened my eyes .figuratively ,i mean!i think i needed to find out WHAT a good movie is before truly appreciating kanchenjungha. almost the best performances of their careers from all the artistes in the movie.veteran actor Chhabi Biswas gives the performance of a lifetime as Raibahadur Indranath .Ray has commented elsewhere that some characters such as Raibahdur Indranath Chowdhury here,and the Zamindar Bishwambhar Roy in Jalsaghar could not have been fleshed out by any other than the late Chhobi Biswas.and with his death the Indian film industry suffered an irreplaceable loss. somebody else has commented that the print quality was bad and dark so he didn't like it.i have heard many to have come up come with similar allegations. fact remains that Ray shot this film with masterfully chosen available light conditions(read:no reflectors,you morons!)to depict the subtle interplay of light and shade to blend in with progress of the storyline!(as an aside ray recounts the sad story of a Bollywood film crew who arrived in Darjeeling at the same time as ray's team,and were still waiting for the elusive sun to arrive so they could begin shooting by the time ray had his whole film in the can and packed up to go home!) the climactic scene of the kanchenjungha suddenly making a brilliant appearance at the penultimate hour never fails to bring out goosebumps!definitely recommended.

Ray's first Color film, a cinematic masterpiece, filmic experiment at its height and incidentally my most favorite. For some reasons, this movie is least understood among the Bengali speaking people and abroad as well and hence remains least appreciated.

The single most noteworthy feature about this movie is the equivalence of real time (total time of the day being depicted in movie) and movie time (total screening time). At least among the Indian movie makers, Ray is the first one who had done such experiment and of course, he succeeded comprehensively.

In order to understand the screenplay of 'Kanchanjangha', I would recommend every non-Bengali speaking people, for the first time at least, to look for a good and authentic translation of the script and then only they should sit for watching this movie. You have to keep one thing in mind; Ray's screenplay is extremely dependent on the usage of dialogue and silence and they are, in this case, written in Bengali Language and set into Bengali context. Unlike Kieslowski, Kurosawa and Bergman, Ray's imagery lacks the dramatic element. So, in order to understand 'the drama' it's recommended to understand his language to the extent possible.

This is not meant as an insult, but this Ray film comes off a bit like an episode of "Love Boat". I really mean no disrespect, but on the old TV show, you had several different couples who all had a story and they all had that common link of working it out on vacation. Here, instead of in a boat, it's in the mountainside where various Indians are vacationing. Most of them are family members but there are also others whose stories end up intersecting with them. There is the family patriarch and his wife, the daughter they want to marry off and the man who she is not in love with, the nice but poor suitor, the husband and wife working through a case of infidelity and more.

Like so many of Satyajit Ray's films, this one is about middle and upper class Indians and their everyday problems. The key to these films is the acting--the realistic acting and the connection the audience makes with these real folks. In many, many, many ways, these films are nothing like the Bollywood films of today--and there is no singing and the fairytale-like plots of many of the newer films is totally absent. Realism is the key--and a bit reminiscent of Ozu's films about ordinary but likable folks. While "Kanchenjungha" is not one of his more famous films and its plot a bit too ordinary, I think it's actually one of his best films--full of realism and heart--but also not everyone's sort of film.

The movie walks in and around Darjeeling. It follows group of characters intricately woven together; describing each personality by themselves and with respect to the other characters. The movie may be described as a beautiful documentation on basics of human nature, with many folds; and every time one watches it, discovers a new dimension. Ray's films interact with the audience in a way that, anyone can perceive them, and Kanchenjungha is no exception to that. What is it about these picturesque snow-capped hills that make one ponder into reflections, which has no space for, in life typically? Unlike the popular understanding the various characters are not shown to "evolve". Rather surrounded by innocence and beauty of the Darjeeling hills, together each of Ray's characters unfurl gradually into a culmination. Every scene in this film has an element of Darjeeling included, such as the unseen bird call, or animals that pass by, or the locals adorn in their tradition. With the sunrays that playing hide-n-seek through the clouds, the Darjeeling mists dances around, only to clear out in the end. It is as if the mountains itself fashions the individuals to reveal themselves, to speak out. Then and only then would the fog clear and you can see "the most beautiful snow range in the world" In then end Kanchenjunga can be summed up into one word as "perfect".