Screenplay, Directed and Produced by: Satyajit Ray
Music by: Ravi Shankar
Cinematography: Subrata Mitra
Aparna: Who will pay for the servant?
Apu: I'll get more
private tuition.
Aparna: Then send me to my
parents?
.....
Apu: Then what should I do?
Aparna: Give up the tuition so
that my poor husband will come home early. Then I shall lament no more.
The above lines describe the
quality of intensely sensitive conversation between husband and wife. The
inherent quality of Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy was that the whole endeavor
was realistic and natural. It would take hardly second for you to become the
part of Apu's life. Every character is beautifully cultivated and knitted
around Apu’s life. The Apu Trilogy is one of the finest Indian cinemas and it
firms my belief that Indian cinema is not behind any other cinema of the world.
The Apu Trilogy consists of three
Bengali movies - Pather Panchali (Song
of the Little Road - 1955), Aparajito (The
Unvanquished - 1956) and Apur Sansar (The
World of Apu - 1959). The films were based on two Bengali novels Pather Panchali and Aparajito written by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. Ray, immensely inspired from Italian neorealism
especially Vittorio
De Sica's Bicycle Thieves, chose amateur cast for his movies. Even his crew was
new and inexperienced. He shot in real life locations and it took almost three
years to come up with first movie due to budget constraints. After
release of Pather Panchali, Ray and most of his crew member especially
cameraman Subrata
Mitra raised to national fame and with second movie they became
international acclaimed film-makers bagging many national and
international awards.
The
Apu Trilogy is a story of a common poor man but with ambitions in his eyes. The
first movie portrays Apu's childhood in rural Bengal where he lives with his
parents, elder sister and an aunt. This movie concentrates more on his family
depicting real problems faced by poor families of rural India. For me, this
movie and most of the part of second movie belongs to Apu's mother. She
brilliantly portrays the cruel responsibility of running the family, agony of
loosing daughter and then husband and dilemma of sending her son far
from her for higher studies. One of the most brilliant character was 80 years
old Aunt. No words could describe her but you could find such characters very
near to your household. The first movie ends with movement of Apu's family to
Banaras after death of Apu's elder sister.
The second
movie, Aparajita, takes you to the journey of Apu's education life. Death of
Apu’s father and Apu’s uncertain future was beautifully caricatured by Ray. The
best part of the movie is the perplex relationship between Apu and his mother. The
scene where Apu comes back to stay with his mother for a day and gives excuse
that he missed the train would touch your heart deeply. The movie ends with the
death of Apu’s mother after which he moves to Calcutta.
The
third movie, Apur Sansar, greets you with an ambitious writer, a loving and
responsible husband and a turmoil driven father. Ray opens another pandaro’s
box in the life of Apu with Aparna, his life partner but she dies at the time
of childbirth. The agony of loosing Aparna clamped Apu and he became wanderer. He
abandons his child but at the end he meets him to find love back in his life.
The
whole cast is appreciable but it is sheer brilliance of Satyajit Ray who put
the Indian cinema on the International platform at par with greatest cinemas of
all eras. Most of the scenes will touch you deeply and will be with you for
your entire life. The outstanding camerawork and melodies should not be
ignored. Language is no bar because feeling has no dictionary and relationship
is universal.
The
outstanding part of the trilogy was that second movie was better than first and
the third movie was better than second. A very rare case.
I do
not want to list its brilliance because it will take hundreds of
pages so just see the movies and you will realize that old is really gold.
