Sikkim (film)
1971 film by Satyajit Ray
Sikkim is a 1971 Indian documentary about the nation of Sikkim, directed by Satyajit Ray. The documentary was commissioned by the Chogyal (King) of Sikkim at a time when he felt the sovereignty of Sikkim was under threat from both China and India. Ray's documentary is about the sovereignty of Sikkim. The film was banned by the government of India, when Sikkim merged with India in 1975. The ban was finally lifted in September 2010. In November 2010 the director of the Kolkata film festival stated that upon screening the documentary for the first time, he received an injunction from the court of Sikkim again banning the film.
Production
Satyajit had planned several documentaries about with people in their setting in focus, like musicians of Rajasthan, dancers in Ellora, but eventually ended up making only one. Ray's cousin who lived in Darjeeling, had appeared in film, Kanchenjungha (1962) also shot in Darjeeling, was acquainted with Chogyal of Sikkim Palden Thondup Namgyal and his American wife Hope Cooke, the couple commissioned the film and his cousin convinced Ray to take on the project.
Overview
The documentary was screened for public viewing for the first time in 39 years at the 16th Kolkata Film Festival. Mathures Paul of The Statesman wrote in his review, "Sandwiched between Pratidwandi, Seemabaddha and Asani Sanket, Sikkim is beautiful, more an essay from a respected travel journal from Ray’s era accompanied by detailed photographs that graced magazines like Life".
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1391941. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971, 1975, 2010 and 1962.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sikkim (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.