#784: RAY, Satyajit: Aparajito (1956)
THE APU TRILOGY {Spine #782}
RAY, Satyajit (India)
Aparajito [1956]
Spine #784
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
Satyajit Ray had not planned to make a sequel to Pather Panchali, but after the film's international success, he decided to continue Apu's narrative. Aparajito picks up where the first film leaves off, with Apu and his family having moved away from the country to live in the bustling holy city of Varanasi (then known as Benares). As Apu progresses from wide-eyed child to intellectually curious teenager, eventually studying in Kolkata, we witness his academic and moral education, as well as the growing complexity of his relationship with his mother. This tenderly expressive, often heart-wrenching film, which won three top prizes at the Venice Film Festival, including the Golden Lion, not only extends but also spiritually deepens the tale of Apu.
110 minutes
Black & White
Black & White
Monaural
in Bengali
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2015
Director/Writer
Based on the novels Pather Panchali and Aparajito by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee.
Satyajit Ray was 35 when he wrote and directed Aparajito.
The Film
Other Satyajit Ray films in the Collection:
The Film
The middle film of this remarkable trilogy displays a definite technical improvement over Pather Panchali, which — despite its nearly non-existent budget — is a masterpiece of stupendous proportions.
Aparajito is no less so. Ray’s focus on the “human things” — like the consecutive shots of flying pigeons the moment after Harihar, Apu’s father (Kanu Banerjee), dies; or Sarbajaya, Apu’s mother (the astonishing Karuna Banerjee), standing in the doorway, flashing a smile at her departing son, which dissolves into an expression of deep sadness — are what makes his films so magical.
Speaking of dissolves, Ray uses them extensively — mostly in the same way Kurosawa used wipes — to show the passing of some amount of time; but sometimes they just simply serve a purely filmic function, like melting into a new scene.
Ray was influenced by Renoir and Huston in these early days, and all three of the films of this trilogy have such a startling simplicity and universal heart.
But Ray is Ray. There was, and perhaps never will be, another like him.
The actors, professional or not, are all outstanding. Young Apu is played by Pinaki Sengupta and looks similar to the Apu of Pather. (Ray would use him again in The Music Room [Spine #573]).
Smaran Ghosal (sole IMDb credit) is Adolescent Apu — properly reserved and shy, but also filled with confidence.
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet (for the trilogy)
57
The ExtrasThe Booklet (for the trilogy)
Forty-eight page booklet featuring an essay, “Every Common Sight” by Terrence Rafferty.
Rafferty’s essay covers all three films of the trilogy. His writing is exquisite. For example:
“It’s in this film that Apu’s story begins to take the shape of a classic bildungsroman, like David Copperfield or Balzac’s Lost Illusions, in which a young man learns to live in the world by first hardening and then softening his heart.”
And:
“At the end of Aparajito, Apu is on the move, as he was at the conclusion of Pather Panchali, but in this film he’s alone, and Ray shoots his slow walk from the back, in long shot, as he heads for the horizon. The young man has taken the decision not to stand in doorways like his mother, or to sit by the Ganges reading scripture like his father. For once in the trilogy Ray doesn’t show us Apu’s searching eyes because neither the director nor his protagonist knows how to see what’s coming next along this road.”
Ray’s storyboards for Pather Panchali.
[see Pather Panchali (1955) {Spine #783}].
“Behind the Universal” by Girish Shambu.
Great essay about how Ray broke the mold and made “universal” films. How?
“By the time Ray came along, a certain ruling Mumbai film ‘formula’ was in place. The recipe produced, in large numbers, films that were ‘all-inclusive entertainments, driven by stars and containing ‘something for everyone in the audience: songs, dances, fights, romance, stunts, and comedy packaged into a melodramatic narrative form.’ This template not only reigned in Mumbai but also spread to the other regional-language sectors, such as Bengali-language commercial cinema. And while the template was enormously fertile, giving rise to a large body of rich and inventive popular art, Ray was seeking to do something else: create a cinema that turned away from the extravagant style and genre moves of popular cinema and toward a finely textured rendering of lived life. Seven years before Pather Panchali, he staked out his position in an essay titled ‘What Is Wrong with Indian Films?’”
Shambu also references two other great Bengali filmmakers, Ritwik Ghatak (two films in the Collection: The Cloud-Capped Star [1960; Spine #993] and A River Called Titas [1973; Spine #687]) and Mrinal Sen.
Commentary
None.
Interview
Interview
The Small Details, with film writer Ujjal Chakraborty.
Why a Ray film is so different from the Hollywood model. So many contemporary filmmakers (Scorsese, for example) were influenced by this idea of making a story complete — not necessarily with dialogue or scenario — but with the smallest of details.
Audio recording
Audio recording
From 1958 of a conversation between director Ray and film historian Gideon Bachmann.
Good oral history from Ray, just as he was becoming internationally known.
Video essay
Video essay
Making “The Apu Trilogy”: Satyajit Ray’s Epic Debut, by Ray biographer Andrew Robinson.
Excellent view of how the trilogy came together, the financial difficulties, and Ray’s determination to become such a great filmmaker.
Documentary
Documentary
The Creative Person: “Satyajit Ray,” a 1967 half-hour documentary by James Beveridge, featuring interviews with Ray, several of his actors, members of his creative team, and film critic Chidananda Das Gupta.
Nice tour of Kolkata and good info from his actors and crew.
Extras Rating (0-40):
Extras Rating (0-40):
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