Recently more and more of India's supreme filmmaker Satyajit Ray's works have been transferred to DVD and finding their way into Netflix's library. One obscure gem is a 1962 romantic comedy titled Kanchenjungha that marks Ray's first color feature and the first film dealing with contemporary India. It is also the first screenplay based entirely on his own narrative and deals strictly with his own upper Bengali social caste. Pre-dating Monsoon Wedding by four decades, Ray's simple story tackles similar terrain as its protagonists juggle long standing family tradition with modern sensibilities.

Unlike Hollywood formula romantic comedies, Ray's family melodrama steadfastly refuses to tie everything up with a happy ending—although its clear that old fashioned authoritarian ways must give way to younger ideals of freedom. Emphasizing this theme is the film's setting away from Ray's more common locales in rural west Bengal and Calcutta—instead choosing the mountain vacation retreat of Darjeeling. Having visited this beautiful city about a year ago brought added appreciation; Ray's camera captures the rapidly changing weather and scenery with great artistry. The surrounding Himalayan scenery is mostly covered in mist and clouds, but as the conclusion approaches the cloud cover lifts, paralleling the family situation.

Veteran actor Chhabi Biswas (The Music Room, Devi, and dozens of other films) portrays wealthy family patriarch Indranath Choudhuri while Karuna Banerjee (Pather Pancholi and Aparajito) serves as his dutiful wife Labanya. They have brought their 19 year old daughter Monisha (Alaknanda Roy) and invited their family in anticipation of her engagement to eligible suitor Praneb, who has the enthusiastic approval of Monisha's father.

While this arrangement offers security and would make the wealthy patriarch happy, Ray indicates that this would be an unsatisfactory match by intertwining other stories into the narrative. Choudhuri establishes himself as a practical man, primarily concerned with conducting a smooth running business without concern for art, nature, or spiritual matters—very much unlike his wife (who sits mournfully contemplating the future while gazing at the misty mountains in the distance) or her bird-watching widowed brother. His eldest daughter Anima (Anubha Gupta) provides a parallel story that would predict Monisha's future. Unhappily married by arranged marriage long ago, Anima has only made her life bearable by having an affair and stays with her equally unhappy husband Shankar (Subrata Sensharma) only for the sake of their young daughter.

Shankar has previously met Praneb—a nice enough man—but suspects that Monisha would likewise doom herself to a loveless marriage if she obeys her father. Sure enough, an obvious void of chemistry is evident when the two prospective partners first appear together.

Not so when young Ashok (Arun Mukherjee) appears by chance in Darjeeling. His family connection is more remote—his accompanying uncle was once a tutor in the Choudhuri household, and Ashok's uncle leaps at the chance to introduce his nephew to the wealthy patriarch. In time, the father does talk with Ashok, who now earns 50 rupees a month in Calcutta, but treats him like a servant by ordering him to go to his hotel room to fetch a red muffler. When he gets around to offering Ashok a position at 300 rupees a month, Ashok rejects the offer—explaining that he prefers to independently make his fortune.

Ashok soon has second thoughts, but his independence and relative lack of pretense are precisely what intrigues Monisha. In a classic "Romeo and Juliet" romance, these star crossed lovers from different economic sides of the track would be destined to passionately meet and run off, but that just wouldn't be fitting in the more restrained Indian society. Beneath the surface, we realize that far deeper emotions and thoughts are taking place—and Satyajit Ray expertly captures their spirit in this understated and universal narrative.