Released between 1955 and 1959, Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, is a treasure trove for film buffs. It serves as a meditation on not only the ascent from boyhood to manhood, but also the cyclical nature of the human condition. From his protagonist’s boyhood in Pather Panchali (1955) to his adolescence in Aparajito (1956) to his adult years in The World of Apu (1959), Ray takes the viewer on a journey that replicates how the wide-eyed wonder of youth tends to dissipate with age, only to be renewed again with the birth of our children.
The story begins in a small village in the jungles of West Bengal. It’s the late 1920s and Apu’s family has moved there to be in their “ancestral home,” a rundown house that appears ready to give itself up to the vines and ravages of nature. Apu, just a young boy played by Subir Banerjee, is mostly unware of his family’s financial strife. He spends his days watching trains go by, running through the jungles and chasing after the candy man who occasionally visits the village. But at home, things are not as idyllic. His father, Harihar Ray (Kanu Banerjee), is an aspiring writer who makes his living as a Hindu priest. He is constantly out of work or doing pro-bono jobs much to the vexation of his wife, Sarbajaya(Karuna Banerjee), who is continually worried that the family, their teenage daughter, Durga (Shampa “Runki” Banerjee), and their ancient “auntie” (Chunibala Devi), won’t be able to eat.
Pather Panchali, and the rest of the Apu films, are based on an autobiographical serial novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (1894-1950), a prominent Bengali author. Although Ray’s background was considerably different from that of his protagonist’s – he grew up privileged in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) – Ray turned his unfamiliarity with rural life to his advantage, channeling his outsider observations into a film that focuses on the smaller details of rural life. In Pather Panchali, we see the countryside the same way a child would: it is a place of beauty filled with fireflies, terrifying cyclones and raucous bands of traveling actors and musicians. School is for losers. It’s more fun to see the encroaching future of power lines and trains.
Apu is a passive character, one more interested in observing than taking action. When he does take initiative, it is usually quite decisive. His character doesn’t really emerge until the very end of Pather Panchali. Until then, the film is more about Sarbajaya’s struggles to keep her family together and Durga’s coming of age. We may think this crumbling milieu is a wonderful, exotic place, but Sarbajayawants to go back to the city. Her husband is absent for most of the film, looking for work and leaving the family in dire straits and flirting with tragedy.
Ray’s ear for aural pleasures completes the experience of Pather Panchali. Buttressing Ravi Shankar’s stirring, sometimes ominous score are the sounds of train whistles, the howl of the wind, the rustle of palm fronds. It’s the complete experience. By the time the films ends, Durga has died and the family is off to the city. But it’s here that Apu takes action. Before her death, a neighbor had accused Durga of stealing her daughter’s beads. When they are packing to move to Benares (now called Varanasi), Apu comes across the purloined beads hidden amongst Durga’s possession. Rather than reveal the transgression to his family, Apu runs into the jungle and tosses the beads into a pond. As the algae slowly closes up around the disturbance in the water, Apu has taken his first step away from innocence.
The story continues in Aparajito. The family has now moved to the city, but the hovel they inhabit isn’t much nicer than their “ancestral home” in the country. Harihar has found work, leading rituals down by the Ganges, yet Sarbajayais still concerned about her family’s well-being. Apu (now played by Pinaki Sengupta), is 10 years old and soaking in the new sights of the city. Ray shoots Aparajito differently from the first film in the series. There is more of a plot here – as the family eventually moves on from the city back to the countryside and then Apu goes to school in Kolkata – and less of the elegiac lyricism of Pather Panchali. In the second half of the film, Apu (now played by Smaran Ghosal), becomes enamored with education and, like Pip in Great Expectations, he is sponsored to go to school in the city, much to his mother’s chagrin. Apu may be learning how the world works while at school, but the true lessons come when he loses both of his parents. There is only so much you can learn from books, Ray appears to argue. It’s only these experiences that truly mark you.
The tone of Aparajito is decidedly more melancholy than Pather Panchali. Sarbajayamust learn to let go of her son, something she is not ready to do after she loses both her daughter and husband to tragedy. But like Richard Linklater and Michael Apted after him, Ray is obsessed with the passage of time, the cycle of life. The loss of innocence is something to be mourned, but it’s also inevitable. Aparajito also ends with a decision. Apu, his father’s son, seemed content to drift through life, take his educational opportunities for granted. By the end of Aparajito he is ready to reach up and assume control of his future, uncertain as it may be.
Ray took a few years off from Apu before completing the trilogy, releasing both Paras-Pathar and The Music Room (considered his masterpiece by some) in 1958. In The World of Apu (also known as Apur Sansar), Ray brings his story full circle as his protagonist has reached adulthood. Played by Soumitra Chatterjee (a Ray favorite who would star in 13 of his features), Apu is now a young adult who, like his father, is aspiring to be a writer. Broke and uninterested in work, Apu is behind on his rent, insistent an artist shouldn’t worry about things as minuscule as paying landlords. He makes a little money tutoring but Apu would rather spend his time writing his novel and playing his flute.
Things change when his friend Pulu (Swapan Mukherjee) invites him to his cousin’s wedding. But when the groom arrives insane and unable to marry, Apu steps in and returns to Calcutta with a wife, the lovely Aparna (Sharmila Tagore). The first half of the film is gentle as we watch Apu and Aparna learn how to live together. He frets that his lowly existence isn’t enough for her. She worries that Apu smokes too much. It is as light a segment as there is in the series and of course it does not last. Aparna dies in childbirth and a bereft Apu leaves, wandering through India, taking on odd jobs, never seeing his son.
Ray brings the trilogy full circle when we meet Kajal (Alok Chakravarty) who looks almost exactly like Apu in Pather Panchali. Raised by his grandfather, Kajal is a troublemaker, in need of a father figure. He knows that Apu is still alive, but creates legends about his father to conceal the hurt. When Apu finally appears, Kajal will not acknowledge him. Out of this fraught relationship, Ray creates one of the most emotional sequences of the trilogy. It’s also here where Apu ascends, takes the place of his parents and steps into the role of the adult. Ray wisely chose to end his series here, at the moment Apu has finally shed the fetters of youth and become a man. Like Mason in Boyhood, we have traveled a long road with Ray’s protagonist, but we have reached a point where we know he will be all right. He and Kajal both.
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