The idea of a new India in cinema

My favourite scene is one from Satyajit Ray’s Kanchenjungha (1962). In the film, Chhabi Biswas plays Indranath Choudhuri, a rich patriarch who goes to Darjeeling on a vacation. Indranath is quite parochial and his wife submissive. The couple is looking for a groom for their younger daughter.

Also in Darjeeling are Ashok (played by Arun Mukherjee) and his uncle, who turns out to be Indranath’s acquaintance. They hail from a meagre background and the uncle approaches Indranath, hoping he can help Ashok with a job.

There’s a scene with Indranath and Ashok, where Indranath asks Ashok how tall he is. Ashok, taken aback, asks, “Who? Me?” Indranath scoffs, “Yes, you. I am not asking about the height of Mount Everest. Do you get out of breath when you run?” Ashok says he doesn’t. Indranath then asks him to fetch his scarf from his hotel room. Ashok obliges.

The chat that follows between Indranath and Ashok says a lot about them. Indranath is educated abroad, has led a good life, and thinks the erstwhile social order (when the British ruled India) was ideal. He tells Ashok about a cricket match he once played against the British, where he was stuck at 96 runs and the bowling was far too good for him to make a century. The British bowler came up to Indranath and told him he’ll give him an “easy one” to calm his nerves. Clearly, Indranath was grateful. He asks Ashok whether he believes that organising dharnas against the British was justified. Ashok looks uncomfortable. Indranath says that the freedom fighters got a raw deal — one died, another wasted away in prison for years. “But I, I lived. And I lived well,” he says smugly.

He then comes back to Ashok’s situation. Ashok tells him he makes Rs50 by giving private tuitions to students. Indranath smirks and tells him that recommendations aren’t easy to come by, and that his uncle would have to get an appointment at Indranath’s residence, or the security guard won’t let him in.

Indranath asks Ashok just how he plans to land a job. Ashok looks up at him and says, “Through my own effort.”

Indranath is shocked. He gets flustered, tries to light a cigarette, and throws it away when it doesn’t light. After he walks off, Ashok laughs raucously. He stops for a second, and then laughs again. Any other filmmaker would have left it at that — but Ray shows the doubt on Ashok’s face. He had dared to defy a man who had the power to influence his prospects.

The scene essayed the power struggle between characters brilliantly. Indranath clearly implied that Ashok will have to dance to his tunes just as he had submitted to the British. You’d think Ashok doesn’t have it in him to give back — but he does, and how. Throughout the scene, it is Indranath raving about the benefits he reaped, but Ashok, with just one dialogue, threw him off balance.

He stood for the ‘new India’ back in 1962, a generation that needed no favours to succeed in life.

Pubali Chaudhuri is the screenplay writer for Rock On!! Here she talks of her favourite scene in a film. Chaudhuri spoke to Kareena Gianani.