The World of Apu
Dir: Satyajit Ray
1959
*****
Life comes full circle for Apu in Apur Sansar as he becomes a Father to a little boy who is very much his Father's Son. The third and final installment of the Apu story focuses on identity and responsibility. Again, Apu has to make difficult decisions and doesn't always make the best choices but for any dip in the middle of the film (and it does dip a little) all is made up for in the wonderful, and for once, heartwarming final conclusion. Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee) is now an unemployed graduate living in a rented room in Kolkata. Despite his teacher's advice to go to university, he is unable to do so because he can't afford it. He tries to find a job, while barely getting by providing private tutoring. His main passion is writing a novel, partially based on his own life, hoping to get it published some day. One day, he meets his old friend Pulu, who coaxes him to join him on a trip to his village in Khulna to attend the marriage of a cousin named Aparna (Sharmila Tagore). On the day of the marriage, it is revealed that the bridegroom has a serious mental disorder. The bride's mother cancels the marriage, despite the father's protests. He and the other villagers believe, according to prevalent Hindu tradition, that the young bride must be wedded off during the previously appointed auspicious hour, otherwise, she will have to remain unmarried all her life. Apu, after initially refusing when requested by a few villagers, ultimately decides to take Pulu's advice and come to the rescue of the bride by agreeing to marry her. He returns with Aparna to his apartment in Calcutta after the wedding. He takes up a clerical job, and a loving relationship begins to bloom between them. Yet, the young couple's blissful days are cut short when Aparna dies while giving birth to their son, Kajal. Apu is overcome with grief and holds the child responsible for his wife's death. He shuns his worldly responsibilities and becomes a recluse – travelling to different corners of India, while the child is left with his maternal grandparents. Meanwhile, Apu throws away his manuscript for the novel he had been writing over the years. A few years later, Pulu finds Kajal growing wild and uncared for. He then seeks out Apu, who is working at a mining quarry and advises Apu one last time to take up his fatherly responsibility. At last, Apu decides to come back to reality and reunite with his son. When he reaches his in-laws' place, Kajal, having seen him for the first time in his life, at first does not accept him as a father. Eventually, he accepts Apu as a friend and they return to Calcutta together to start life afresh. It is the third and final part of The Apu Trilogy, about the childhood and early adulthood of a young boy named Apu in early twentieth century India. The film is based on the last two-thirds of the 1932 Bengali novel, Aparajito, by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. Ray wanted fresh faces again for the film like other two films in the Apu Trilogy and thus he started auditioning. In other films he made in between, like Parash Pathar (1958) and Jalsaghar (1958), he did work with professional actors like Soumitra Chatterjee, a radio announcer and a stage actor who, with doyen of Bengali theatre Sisir Bhaduri, had first auditioned for the role of the adolescent Apu in Aparajito (1956). Though Ray thought he had the right look, he found him too old for the role. Ray remembered him and offered the role of adult Apu two years later. Chatterjee was still unaware that he had already been selected for the title role. He had gone on the sets of Ray's fourth film, Jalsaghar, to watch the shoot. That day, while he was leaving the sets, Ray called him over and introduced him to actor Chhabi Biswas, saying, "This is Soumitra Chattopadhyay; he's playing Apu in my next film Apur Sansar", leaving him surprised. Ray however had a tough time finding an actress for the female lead Aparna. He even placed an ad in a local daily asking for photographs from girls between ages of 15 and 17. There were over a thousand responses to the ad, but Ray found none of them worth auditioning. This was when Ray came to know of a young girl, Sharmila Tagore, who had recently performed at a dance recital at Children's Little Theatre in Kolkata. She is related to poet Rabindranath Tagore, and subsequently auditioned and was selected. It is the perfect conclusion to the trilogy – very much its own story – but a great chapter in the story of one man’s life.

Aparajito
Dir: Satyajit Ray

1956
*****

Aparajito, the second part of Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, explores the transit into adolescence of young Apu, specifically raising questions on religion. If the first film explored the idea of family, the second film one concentrates on faith and priority. Apu shuns the priesthood, his Fathers profession that kept him away from his family for so long, and wins a scholarship to go to school which in turn takes him away from his family. The final scene is even more heartbreaking than the first film's but it is wonderfully handled. The issues raised are universal ones which is probably why the films have global appeal but there is something magical about Ray's films that make the ordinary somewhat magical. It is now 1920, Apu (now played by Pinaki Sen Gupta) and his parents, who have left their home in rural Bengal, have settled into an apartment in Varanasi where his father Harihar (Kanu Banerjee) works as a priest. Harihar is making headway in his new pursuits: praying, singing, and officiating among the ghats on the sacred river Ganges. Sadly, Harihar catches a fever and soon dies just as his daughter did in the first film. His wife Sarbajaya (Karuna Banerjee), Apu’s mother, is forced to begin work as a maid. With the assistance of a great-uncle, Apu and his mother return to Bengal and settle in the village Mansapota. There Apu apprentices as a priest, but pines to attend the local school which his mother is persuaded to allow. He excels at his studies, impressing a visiting dignitary, and the headmaster takes special interest in him. Within a few years, the teenage Apu (now played by Smaran Ghosal) has done well enough to receive a scholarship to go to Kolkata for further studies. Sarbajaya feels abandoned and frightened by this, but gives in and lovingly packs his suitcase. Apu travels by train to the city and starts working at a printing press after school hours to subsist. He becomes more accustomed to the city life and feels out of place in the village. Sarbajaya expects visits from him, but he visits only a few times. Her loneliness and yearning for her son continue to grow. She becomes seriously ill, but does not disclose her illness to Apu, lest his studies get disturbed. When Apu finally comes to know about her poor health, he returns to the village to find that she has died. Bhabataran, Apu's great uncle, requests that he stay there and work as a priest. Apu rejects the idea and returns to Kolkata, a sad loneliness washing over him as he leaves. When Ray started making Pather Panchali, he had no plans of following it up with a sequel but the critical and commercial success of the film prompted him to start making Aparajito. Unlike his previous venture, where he stayed faithful to the novel, Ray took some bold artistic decisions here, such as portraying the relationship between Apu and his mother in a very different manner from the book. As a result, in contrast to its predecessor, the film was not received well locally; Ray recalled that "as for the suburban audience, it was shocked by the portrayal of the mother and son relationship, so sharply at variance with the conventional notion of mutual sweetness and devotion". It was based on the last fifth of the novel Pather Panchali and the first third of the novel Aparajito by Banerjee. The novel Pather Panchali is a classic bildungsroman (a type of coming-of-age story) in the canon of Bengali literature. It first appeared as a serial in a Calcutta periodical in 1928 and was published as a book the next year. According to Ray's biographer, Robinson, among the three films of the Apu trilogy, Aparajito bears the closest resemblance with its literary source. It was a great step in Indian cinema. Critical reception outside of India was overwhelmingly positive. It won 11 international awards, including the Golden Lion and Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival, becoming the first ever film to win both. The critical acclaim this movie received encouraged Ray to make another sequel, Apur Sansar (1959), which was equally well received, and thus concluded one of the most critically acclaimed movie trilogies of all time.

Pather Panchali

Dir: Satyajit Ray

1955

*****

Pather Panchali has got to be the most impressive directional debut of all time, by anyone's standards. It's realism makes it even more heartbreaking, and it's beauty and tenderness is unsurpassed. There are directors who are capable and know how to tell a good story and then there are directors who are capable and know how to tell a great story and produce masterpieces. Satyajit Ray is a genius and the father of modern film. Most great films are remembered for one or two great scenes, Pather Panchali is great scene followed by great scene with a central character that is as well written as he is performed. Based on Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's 1929 Bengali novel of the same name, it is the first film in the Apu trilogy. Pather Panchali depicts the childhood of the protagonist Apu (Subir Banerjee) and his elder sister Durga (Uma Dasgupta) and the harsh village life of their poor family. In Nischindipur, rural Bengal, in the 1910s, Harihar Roy (Kanu Banerjee) earns a meager living as a pujari (priest) but dreams of a better career as a poet and playwright. His wife Sarbajaya (Karuna Banerjee) takes care of their children, Durga and Apu, and Harihar's elderly cousin, Indir Thakrun (Chunibala Devi). Because of their limited resources, Sarbajaya resents having to share her home with the old Indir, who often steals food from their already bare kitchen. At times, Sarbajaya's taunts become offensive, forcing Indir to take temporary refuge in the home of another relative. Durga is fond of Indir and often gives her fruit she has stolen from a wealthy neighbour's orchard. One day, the neighbour's wife accuses Durga of stealing a bead necklace, which Durga denies, and blames Sarbajaya for encouraging her tendency to steal. As the elder sibling, Durga cares for Apu with motherly affection but spares no opportunity to tease him. Together, they share the simple joys of life, sitting quietly under a tree, viewing pictures in a travelling vendor's bioscope, running after the candy man who passes through the village and watching a jatra (folk theatre) performed by a troupe of actors. Every evening they are delighted by the sound of a distant train's whistle. One day, they run away from home to catch a glimpse of the train, only to discover Indir lying dead on their return. Unable to earn a good living in the village, Harihar travels to the city to seek a better job. He promises Sarbajaya that he will return with money to repair their dilapidated house. During his absence, the family sinks deeper into poverty. Sarbajaya grows increasingly lonely and bitter. One day during the monsoon season, Durga plays in the downpour for too long, catches a cold and develops a high fever. Adequate medical care being unavailable, the fever becomes worse, and on a night of incessant rain and gusty winds, she dies. Harihar returns home and starts to show Sarbajaya the merchandise he has brought from the city. Sarbajaya, who remains silent, breaks down at the feet of her husband, and Harihar cries out in grief as he discovers that he has lost his daughter. The family decide to leave their ancestral home. As they start packing, Apu finds the necklace that Durga had earlier denied stealing and he throws it into a pond. Apu and his parents leave the village on an ox-cart. It is tender and utterly heartbreaking. The film took nearly three years to be completed due to funding problems. It was shot mainly on location, had a limited budget, featured mostly amateur actors, and was made by an inexperienced crew. The famous sitar player Ravi Shankar composed the film's soundtrack and score using classical Indian ragas. Subrata Mitra was in charge of the cinematography while editing was handled by Dulal Dutta with whom Satyajit Ray would work with for the rest of his career. The film has been praised over the years for its realism, humanity, and soul-stirring qualities while others have ridiculously called its slow pace a drawback with some even condemning it for ‘romanticising poverty’ which I find insulting and absurd. The film's lyrical quality and realism (influenced by Italian neorealism), portray both the poverty and the small delights of daily life, something the author Darius Cooper has termed the "epiphany of wonder". The tale of Apu's life is continued in the two subsequent installments of Ray's trilogy: Aparajito (The Unvanquished, 1956) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959). Pather Panchali is described as a turning point in Indian cinema, as it was among the films that pioneered the Parallel Cinema movement, which espoused authenticity and social realism. The first film from independent India to attract major international critical attention, it won India's National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 1955, the Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival and several other awards, establishing Ray as one of the country's most distinguished filmmakers. It is often featured in lists of the greatest films ever made, and I complete agree that it is.