A NOTE ON THE PERCEPTIONS OF

SPACE AND TIME IN KANCHANJUNGHA

Pratyay Nath and Piya Chakraborty



anchanjungha, one of the more complex films made by
Satyajit Ray, has received substantial amount of attention of
the film critic and has already been ably analysed against
various registers. This short paper explores the various ways
in which the time and space are experienced in the film.

USES OF TIME IN KANCHANJUNGHA
One hardly fails to note that Kanchanjungha stands out among Bengali films
for being the only real-time movie the same one and a half hours elapse in the life of
the audience as well as that of the characters. We are witness to one afternoon in the
life of an upper class Bengali family and the experiences of its different members, as
they interact with themselves and outsiders. Interestingly, we never see all the
characters of the film at the same place at any point of time. Consequently our gaze it
made to hover around different locations around the Darjeeling Mall, where we see
the characters interacting in groups of twos and threes. Consequently, the entire film
has a sense of simultaneity to it, although the events slowly move forward in time.
Following Arnold Hauser, we might say Kanchanjungha is a classic case where time is
made to lose its uninterrupted continuity and irreversible direction by the display of
concurrent and simultaneous spaces, depicting events that are happening at more or
less the same time, although in different places. The main tool adopted here is not the
usual moving to and fro in time, but successive unfolding of near-simultaneous
events. One is tempted to quote Hauser at this point:

The real spatialization of time in the film does not take place,
however, until the simultaneity of parallel plots is portrayed. It is the
experience of the simultaneity of different, spatially separated
happenings that puts the audience into that condition of suspense which
moves between space and time and claims the categories of both orders
for itself. It is the simultaneous nearness and remoteness of things
their nearness to one another in time and their distance from one
another in space that constitutes that spatio-temporal element, that
two-dimensionality of time, which is the real medium of the film and the
basic category of its world picture.
1


1
Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, vol. 2, New York: Vintage Books, 1985, pp. 242-243.

Satyajit Ray mostly uses spatially and temporally continuous medium shots in
Kanchanjungha while showing the same set of characters at any particular location. In
a few places, temporal ellipsis has also been adopted where short time spans needed
to be abridged. As the movie camera moves over to show a different set of actors at
some other place, there is always a spatial discontinuity between the two transitory
shots. However, what happens to the time factor during this spatial shift is relatively
unclear. Two sets of characters in two different locations, which we are made see in
successive shots, might be operating at exactly the same time, in which case the two
transitory shots are a short time reversal, because the second shot will be going back
to a temporal point which it has already shown with respect to the first set of actors;
or else we might be dealing with subsequent events, in which case we should have a
short temporal ellipsis. However, we cannot be sure in this respect because inspite of
there being a sense of near-simultaneity in the action of the different and essentially
changing sets of actors and locations, Ray hardly uses any external hint to signal the
actual time anywhere. The sparse horological references do not help us in any way in
this respect either.
2

To illustrate this, the following example might be discussed with the risk of
going into something that might seem banal to the specialist, but has been something

2
Nol Burch, Theory of Film Practice, Princeton University Press: New Jersey, 1969.
of interest to the present amateur author. Let us, for the present purpose, focus on a
certain sequence of shots that show Indranath Chowdhury and his wife Labanya
discussing their daughter Manishas marriage. The last shot of the sequence is
followed by a shot that shows Mr. Banerjee trying to make a headway into Manishas
heart. Now, suppose the first sequence shows activities that supposedly happened
between 4:10 pm and 4:30 pm. We now come to the second sequence, the events of
which may have started before 4:30 pm. In case, the transition between the two
sequences would have to be short time reversals, because it goes back to a point in
time which it had already shown with a different set of characters. If the events of the
second sequence start at 4:30 pm, we have a continuous shot transition, although the
locale of the shot changes completely. Lastly, if the events are happening not much
later than 4:30 pm, we have a short time abridgement or temporal ellipsis between the
shots. The interesting point, however, is to note that inspite of the sense of temporal
simultaneity among the different spatial elements, it is impossible for us to know, in
the absence of any outside indicators, what the exact and actual temporal sequence of
the events is. Had this been the case, we would have had repeated time reversals
where the shots would go back repeatedly to and start afresh from a specified time
while following events that started at the exact same time.
As such, one ponders as the film is over, that the idea of temporal simultaneity
in Kanchanjungha is more of a qualitative category, than a quantitative one. We have a
sense that the events are taking place at a more or less same time. But the very fact
that no single group of actors is shown for the entire stretch of the film of one and a
half hour, yet we witness one and a half hour pass, makes us suspicious that the
different events taking place are only approximately simultaneous and often precede
of follow other events, instead of being entirely simultaneous with them.

PERCEPTIONS OF SPACE IN KANCHANJUNGHA
We begin our discussion with the following conversation between Manisha, younger
daughter of the grand patriarch Indranath Chowdhury and Ashok, the young man she
briefly meets in Darjeeling.
-l< 0ll*l: .<-- l>?
l<: =-l l< <7 l<l> -l
-+|l: .l<? -l< l=l5 l l-l?
l<: l .7l <* 7< l< <ll< .<5l7 l -47l...
, -l< .7l <l< .4- , ?
l<: =l ,
The above dialogues signal two different perceptions of Darjeeling. Manisha
sees it as a place of leisure, where one can sit back and enjoy the sight of the
mountains, the most beautiful mountain range in the world in the words of her
father. The other perceives it as a place where the sick are brought with the hope that
the change of weather would do them good. As we shall proceed to see, these are far
more than personal choices and reflect two major, if complementing, discourses about
the hill-station.
The idea of leisure that has brought the Chowdhury family to Darjeeling
originated in early modern Europe. As Peter Burke points out, it was from the
sixteenth century onwards that noticeable attention was devoted to recognising certain
activities as leisure, as opposed to work. More and more books began to appear
around this time that elaborated on various sports and other things that one might
pursue when at leisure.
3
These ideas percolated different parts of the world through
colonial agencies; the English in case of larger parts of South Asia. It was this sense of
leisure coupled with English romanticism that created the hill-station of Darjeeling in
the nineteenth century.
Alongside these two different perceptions of the hill-station, a spatial binary is
played throughout the film; a binary between Darjeeling and Calcutta. When Ashoks
uncle spots Indranath for the first time in the mall and prepares to barge upon him so

3
Peter Burke, Viewpoint: The Invention of Leisure in Early Modern Europe, Past and Present, no. 146, 1995, pp. 136-
150; Joan-Lluis Marfany, Debate: The Invention of Leisure in Early Modern Europe, Past and Present, no. 156, 1997, pp.
174-191.
as to convince him to give Ashok a job, Ashok tells his uncle not to bring these issues
up there. The conversation proceeds as follows:
=* *l4l l< ~ -2 <<l <<l< *l4l -4
<l<l: 7l .<l- *l4l7l <l-?
l<: . <<l7l4 l+< l4 =< =l- |+ l<5| .0l4
, l<5| .0l4! l- +l+l << < .<5l-l7l < 5| .0l4, ?
Ashok thus emphasises that it is improper to bring up issues pertaining to the material
world in a place that is supposed to be enjoyed only.
Again, on their first acquaintance, when Manisha and Ashok exchange
pleasantries, Manisha tells Ashok that although her exams are round the corner and
she had brought her books along, she could hardly study at all. She elaborates:
--|l: =7l ~< *l4l4 5l =4-l ll ll *l-l l04 <l*< .5l 5 4l4
l<: =7l l- l< <>-,
This re-emphasises the notion that the enjoyment of pristine beauty of this dream-like
world is antithetical to the concerns of the real world.
Later, offering Ashok a job, Indranath says,
Change- = .7l < 5l<l< =4-l; <<l7l4 l4 -l< <ll57 -l< * .0l <<< =-l-7
7<7 .0< -l .7l-l< <l<l< <, appointment .< <l7l4 <l 7l4 <
We are reminded immediately of how Ashok had accessed Indranath a while ago in
the mall his uncle barged in on the Chowdhurys while they were sitting in the mall.
However, this did not seem abnormal and the otherwise uptight Raybahadur did not
seem to be upset about it. However, during the above conversation, he implicitly
emphasizes that this is not the usual norm by which he visits people and goes on to
explain Ashok the ground rules. We are clearly made to see how while in leisure, these
strict norms of the temporal regime of the workplace, in this case symbolized by
Calcutta, can be overridden without causing any tumult. Leisure, thus, is outside the
norm-regime of the workplace.
However, the meaning of the place is quite different for Ashok. He informs
Manisha that his mother has been suffering from malaria, implying that he has
brought her to Darjeeling for a change. Now, the word malaria originates from the
Italian language and translates literally as mala aria or bad air. This came from the
early belief that the disease was caused by breathing the stale, warm, humid air found
around swamps. Hence the patient was often prescribed to go for a change. Such a
change in Bengali is called (literally, change of air). By mid-twentieth
century, the colonial hill-station of Darjeeling was emerging as the perfect spot for
change for the Bengali middle class. In the words of Ashoks uncle, [T]he best place
for your mother. Unlike the Chowdhurys, Ashoks family has put up in a sanitorium.
Now sanitoriums sprang up in nineteenth century Europe for patients suffering from
long-term lung diseases of the likes of tuberculosis and asthma, and were located in
such places that would provide them with high altitude, fresh air and good nutrition.
Dr. Arthur Campbell, a member of the Indian Medical Service, established the
sanitarium in Darjeeling and became its first superintendant in 1839. It is this Dr.
Campbell that Indranath Chowdhury praises with awe-inspired veneration:
*-l<: =* l<<l7 0ll*l: =<7l< .< <ll-4> *l-l? 7l- =l~4l <0l7 => <l <7 .l<
... l> .7l =<7l .5l0< .>lJ :l- =7l .< <ll-4> *l-l? One mans work. One Britisher
Dr. Campbell.
It is of course not that these two discourses do not meet anywhere. When
Ashok agrees to Manishas statement that one can never study in a place as beautiful
as Darjeeling, or when Ashoks uncle refuses to deprive himself of the beauty of the
Himalayan range by confining himself in the sanatorium, they get into the discourse
which treats Darjeeling as a place of leisure and pleasure, and thus transcend their
usual location within the health discourse.

However, we soon find that there is more to this play with spaces. After
refusing the job offer from Indranath, Ashok justifies his apparently illogical action,
given his present state of financial crisis and unemployment, to Manisha as follows:
l<: =* *l4l <* .<l<=4 <<l7l = l-l7 l-4 l-7-; l= .=l< < 4l
... =<<- 0 .7l .0ll- <-~... =* l<<l7 l=-l4, =* <-<- l5l>, ,
, ...< .4- <l2<; 7:<l*< -7l... ...... - 7l<l < <|<<-
.l-l << l0... l- .4- < l- -*! , =<7l l=<l, !
! ! <l5< .<4l< <l<-l! ... 7l -l-<l .0<|, =<<- *l4l4 = l=- 7l= < .<5
, ?
While the last sentence is delivered, the camera shows Manishas face in close up. The
audience is immediately reminded of the fact that she has also rejected an otherwise
lucrative offer a while ago the marriage offer from the most eligible bachelor, Mr.
Banerjee. The audience is made to think that perhaps in the worldlier domain of
Calcutta, where materialist concerns are supposed to rule supreme, Manisha would
have accepted the offer of marriage. Perhaps the words of Ashok made her think too
that it was probably the unique atmosphere of Darjeeling that had made a daring, if
not rash, hero of her as well, so much so that she had disobeyed her own authoritative
father.
This dialogue brings the perception of space outside the tropes of leisure and
health and makes us realise that there is more than Ray wants to play on. Through this
dialogue of Ashok and the silence of Manisha, the physical space of Darjeeling
becomes larger than life. It is invested with supra-natural powers of inspiring humans,
making them do things that they otherwise would have refrained from doing, fills
then with enormous courage, if not brazen rashness. It is this larger than life
dimension of otherwise ordinary mortals that, I think, is embodied in the trope of
Kanchanjungha. One hardly fails to notice that it is soon after Ashok and Manisha
commit larger than life acts of rejecting a job offer and a marriage offer respectively,
both of which were equally lucrative, that Kanchanjungha makes itself visible, as if in
happy approval of the gallant acts. When Mr. Banerjee, while saying adieu to Manisha,
says, , romantic surroundings- = .7l-l< =47 -- =7 .4 love is the most important
thing in the world. l< <<l7l4 l+< l4 .7l-l< 4l0 <-~ -- =4, .4 .-< .54~ security-
, security-< .<<~ =<7l .- grow , 7- 7 l- -l< *ll-4l, the agency of
the physical space of Darjeeling, symbolized by Kanchanjungha, becomes very clear;
as if, here, as in the case of Ashok, the real actor is the locale, the two characters
merely its puppets.
Thus we see how the references to the various perceptions of Darjeeling and
Calcutta are recurrent and directly contribute to our understanding of the setting and
nature of the characters. One wonders whether Darjeeling, Calcutta and
Kanchanjungha can also be considered as cinematic motifs in their own right in the
sense that Suman Ghosh calls the red muffler, Manishas ear rings and Animas love
letter recurrent motifs in the film.
4


4
Suman Ghosh, Rays Musical Narratives: Studying the Screenplay of Kanchenjungha, in Moinak Biswas
(ed.), Apu and After: Re-visiting Rays Cinema, London, New York and Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2006, pp. 116-
139.