Shadows of Time (German: Schatten der Zeit) is a 2004 romantic Bengali language German film, shot in Calcutta, India. It is the first feature-length film of Academy Award-winning director Florian Gallenberger, and stars Prashant Narayanan, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Irrfan Khan and Tillotama Shome in pivotal roles. Florian Gallenberger, the young German director began his film career with an Oscar for his graduation film Quiero Ser (I Want to be) in 2001.

The film was a short film about two brothers separated in the streets of Mexico due to a misunderstanding. From Mexico, the filmmaker moves to Kolkata and captures the life and times of two child labourers who try to escape the drudgery of a carpet factory in pre-independence India. It’s a love story which spawns a lifetime and goes through the usual gamut of heartbreak, clandestine joy and separation. Young Ravi uses his life savings to save co-worker Masha from the clutches of a sex worker. Masha flees the factory and promises to wait for him in a temple in Calcutta on every full moon.
Soon, she loses count of the number of full moons for fate prevents the duo from meeting and life takes them on their separate paths. Ravi becomes a prosperous carpet merchant and Masha settles down to a life of domesticity. But love prevails... and the love story transcends the shadows of time. Not quite Salaam Bombay, the film has a languid charm which grows on you. All you need is a bit of patience. However, Gallenberger first came to India in April 2001 for research and spent around a year and a half researching and understanding life. He was moved by a radio interview he had earlier heard, of a little girl working as a laborer in an Indian carpet factory which prompted him to leave for India and research a story. He set his story in Calcutta, which had earlier attracted renowned filmmakers from all over the world like Jean Renoir, Roberto Rossellini, Louis Malle and Roland Joffe to come and make a film in the city. But Gallenberger decided that unlike the others, he was going to make it in Bengali language rather than in English or his native German. The film was partly funded by the German government and was produced by Helmut Dietl and Norbert Preuss. Preuss, in an interview, stated though the story was written in German by Gallenberger, the Indian setting and Bengali language were chosen to maintain authenticity. Noted Indian theatre actor Dilip Shankar who did casting in Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding and Pan Nalin's Samsara, was appointed as the casting director for Shadows of Time. Aishwarya Rai, Sir Ben Kingsley and Vivek Oberoi were being considered for major roles in the film, but the roles of adult Ravi and adult Masha went to actors Prashant Narayanan and Tannishtha Chatterjee respectively. Gallenberger had spotted Narayanan in Chhal and was impressed by him. For the young Ravi and Masha, more than 7,000 schoolchildren were auditioned before they narrowed it down to Sikandar Agarwal and Tumpa Das. For portraying the old age of the characters, veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee and actor Utpal Dutt's widow Sova Sen were chosen. Gallenberger hired a Bengali communicator for a crash course in the language for non-Bengali members of the 100-member crew, which include 10 Germans. The lead actor Prashant Narayanan too had to take lessons in the language as he is originally from South India and did not know Bengali. The shooting of the film began in March 2003 at locations in and around Calcutta, and was finished in 12 weeks. #Shadows_of_Time #Movie2004 #EnglishReview