Old Reel Redux

Having recently watched ‘The Apu Trilogy’, a film by Satyajit Ray, rightly regarded as one of the best works of literature in the history of world cinema, I cannot help but put in my thoughts about this classic masterpiece. The trilogy  composed of ‘Pather Panchali’ or ‘Song of the Road’, ‘Aparajito’ or ‘The Unvanquished’ and ‘Apur Sansar’ or ‘The World of Apu’ is based on two Bengali novels Pather Panchali (1929) and Aparajito (1932) written by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. Having won the award for Best Human Document in 1956 Cannes Film Festival, the film dialogues certainly has an impeccable literature touch. Portrayed in a lucid fashion that even with limited knowledge of bengali (someone like me) can completely identify with the depiction of characters and storyline effortlessly.

The films set in Bengal in the 1920s, articulately offers a sublime purity of sensitivity and maturity of the time when life was traditional and hard in the rural areas of India. As the movie proceeds, the myriad ‘Mono no Aware’ spectrum of the trilogy stays in the mind of the audience bounding them to contemplate the quintessence of a fine film. Like a divine hum of the pious bird of good omen, it affirms the simplicity and elegance of a cinema, no matter how far in our cynicism we may stray. Bestriding way beyond pretentiousness, the unprecedented and universal cinematic exposition of abandonment and independence in the film effortlessly creates a world of its own enticing the audience into it that it makes one feel part of it. The trilogy filmed between 1950 and 1959, a period when prolific realm of Indian film industry had conventionally stayed within the narrow confines of swashbuckling musical romances; this piece of art altogether established a new cinema for India creating an impact about the films of one’s own culture.

With the artistic scene like train roaring at the far end of a field, representing the desire of a child to know the world and the promise of the future, at the same time connecting and separating the characters throughout, foregrounding the strong feelings of human relationships the films benchmarks the realm of ideas of  director’s cut. The first film, ‘Pather Panchali’, has a relatively simple plot largely consisting of a series of short, loosely connected vignettes tracing out the life of a poor Brahmin family with head of the family, Harihar (Kanu Banerji), who dreams of being a poet, bringing Sarbajaya (Karuna Banerji), his pregnant wife, and Durga (Uma Das Gupta), his daughter, from Benares back to the ancestral rural home. The young family also takes care of an aged aunt, Indir Thakrun (Chunibala Devi). The sheer artistry of the tenderness of the heartwarming bonds, the authenticity of beauty and lyricism, and the portrayal of death, poverty and deprivation with the emotional ride of love, mirth, grief, energy, terror, disgust and anger, undeviatingly connects one to subconscious. In the fading of the light, as the 80 year old, stooped double, deeply wrinkled, Chunibala Devi, sings in the movie in her sad feeble voice, “Hori Din To Gelo, Sandhya Holo, Par Koro Amaare” meaning “God, the day is finished, evening has descended, now please take me across”, it completely embodies the brilliant classicality of  an artistic production.

The second film, Aparajito is about estrangement between the mother (Sarbajaya) and her son Apu (who goes to Calcutta to study) causing her acute pain, loneliness and eventually death. The most extraordinary turning point in the trilogy is in the third film Apur Sansar, when Apu, an unemployed graduate, goes with his best friend, Pulu, to attend the wedding of Pulu's cousin, Aparna. Aparna, played by 14 year old Sharmila Tagore characterizes the impeccable brilliance of her acting skills even at such a tender age. During the wedding, Apu gets married under extraordinary circumstances to Aparna, who later in the film dies during childbirth leaving Apu alone and shattered. Apu blames his son (Kajal) for Aparna’s death and swears never to see him but later unites with him after 5 years taking him along to Calcutta.

If you have an inclination towards art, this would be one of the best films you would ever come across. The Trilogy hinging on instantly recognizable aspects of the human condition with the penchant for close-ups, the dramatic zooms, the occasional submission to simple melodrama and the sheer lust for life is a work of an absolute unimpeachable integrity which only a few films makers of the world have matched, and Ray is undoubtedly one of them.