Saturday, May 5, 2012

Best Movies Ever #4 - The Apu Trilogy (1955-59)




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.