Satyajit Ray is to
India what Akira Kurosawa is to Japan or Vittorio De Sica to Italy. His films
are so poetically evocative and stunningly photographed; told with such immediacy
and assuredness, he is truly a master of the art form and clearly this trilogy
is a labor of love.
He was clearly influenced by rampant social change occurring in India
around the 1920s, the socially conscious Italian neorealist cinema of De Sica’s
Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Umberto D. (1952), as well as the
minimalist cinematic art of Kurosawa’s Rashomon
(1950).
For many years Mr. Ray’s films were unavailable to western
audiences or even Indian audiences outside Bengal, and only known to European art-house cinephiles, but now they are finally being restored and shown in
retrospectives of Satyajit’s body of work across North America, including at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto.
These tales tell a powerful sweeping story of a Bengali boy named
Apu and his family struggling through life as he grows to adulthood. They are enthralling
masterpieces worth every effort to locate and watch at your earliest
convenience. Newly restored digital prints are now showing in art-house cinemas across the country and will soon be
available on Criterion Blu-ray and DVD. I recommend anyone to start their
journey of discovery with these three wonderful gems.
Pather Panchali (Song of
the Little Road) (1955), Satyajit Ray’ first film in the Apu trilogy, that
began his career as a filmmaker has everything you could want from a movie. A generational
coming of age saga, it contains an entire, fully realized, complete microcosm
of human experience and culture.
Apu is born of poor Bengali parents who also have a teenage
daughter Durga. The father is a priest frequently away looking for work to make
enough money to support his young family and his elderly mother who live in the
ruined remains of a dilapidated ancestral forest dwelling.
The mother has her hands full feeding and raising her young
son and daughter, who are, as children often are, playful and mischievous,
while dealing with the village gossip about their lack of means.
I had heard great things about these films as they are very
highly regarded in the world of international cinema and frequently considered
among the all-time greatest films, but I was not prepared for such a true,
authentic and honest vision; laying bare the tragic realities and every day
struggles of a poor Bengali family scraping out a meager living in an isolated
village among the bamboo groves.
Apu and his sister’s carefree childhood is short lived
however. During one of the father’s lengthy trips, tragedy strikes with
uncommon ferocity that will leave a lasting effect on the young impressionable
Apu. But his troubles are only beginning as the family is forced to relocate,
leaving everything behind.
This is realist cinema in the tradition of De Sica and
Kurosawa, but also art at the highest level. This film has made me a believer
and fan of Mr. Ray’s films. He has captured with this film, a sensitivity and quality
of artistic expression that transcends the medium.
Filmed with stunning natural beauty using authentic
locations and non-professional actors, we are totally immersed in the lives of
these characters and their world. The path through the bamboo forest, the
fields where women toil, the monsoons, the beads, the snake, and the ominous train
passing like a spirit serpent across the horizon; all are unforgettable magical
images and characters that make a lasting impression.
Written and directed by Mr. Ray and based on the novels of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, this is an epic
saga that’s as intimately observed as it is powerfully told, following our young
hero’s progress along with that of the country itself. His future, connected
with that of India, is always somewhere on the horizon beyond the fields and
groves. You can hear it creeping ever closer like a train that steams ahead
relentlessly.
Aparajito (The
Unvanquished) (1956) Being the second part in this mesmerizing and
enriching trilogy, it feels like a spiritual experience. The story is so simple
but told with such clarity and sensitivity, that it feels timeless and universal.
The time is 1920 as the British Empire is transforming the
Indian landscape with industry and progress and affecting every aspect of life.
Villages are being consumed by ever growing cities and not everyone will be
able or willing to adapt to the changes.
This film chronicles Apu’s education as we follow him into
adolescence. Apu’s family now lives in a city by the Ganges River,
where his father has found work as a Brahmin preaching on the steps of the
great river.
But tragedy and poverty continues to dog Apu as his family
is forced to move back to a small village in the country. Eventually, when Apu
is old enough, he goes off to college in Calcutta on a scholarship and finds
a job at a printing press. There he finds lodging while studying and making new
friends, but his mother, alone and isolated in the village, suffers while longing
for word or visits from him.
These are tumultuous tragic tales that remind us how cruel
and fragile life can be, which also reflect in many ways the life of the author
and filmmaker. All three films and this one in particular warns us how quickly
and suddenly everything we hold dear can be taken away.
Filmed in authentic locations around Calcutta’s streets and
the Ganges River, it’s a transporting and rapturous experience.
Apur Sansar (The World of
Apu) (1959) In this third part of the Apu trilogy, we follow Apu as an
adult trying to write his first novel while also searching for work to pay for
his apartment in Calcutta. Starting his own family is the furthest thing from
his mind until serendipitous circumstances lead him to meet the girl he will
fall in love with.
Apu is invited to a wedding by his friend who may have a job
for him, and finds himself in an extraordinary strange but lucky situation. When
later his son is born, Apu must endure still more overwhelming tragedy before he can
find happiness.
There is a constant theme running throughout the trilogy of
oppressive lack of money, and struggling to make ends meet while pursuing a
creative and spiritual life. In the first film it’s the father who travels far
and wide to find ways to support the family, in the second film it falls to the
practical mother to keep the family going and in the third it is Apu himself
who must support himself and his new wife.
This final film is a tragic love story that brings the saga
full circle. A generation has passed and the country, as well as its people,
have transformed but not without much suffering and loss. These powerful tales
have taken us on a sweeping journey of epic proportions that will resonate
deeply with all who experience them.
JP
