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Written by Lingges Baskaran
Pather Panchali (1955)
Show this film to a friend and convince them that this director had never done a feature before this. This movie is not just an art piece but also the starting point of one of the greatest creators of all time. Without Pather Panchali (1955), the cinema world as we know it wouldn’t exist. This Indian master was celebrated across the world—from Scorsese to Kurosawa—and acknowledged the greatness of this Bengali man named Satyajit Ray.
As a film, Pather Panchali (1955) marks the beginning of the Apu trilogy, and what a wondrous start it is. Mr Ray must have been closely acquainted with his female relatives or must have had a close bond with his mother because no one has ever depicted women more authentically on screen since or before him. The female characters in these films are wonderfully written—they are mean, selfish, and jealous, but also compassionate, and caring, and, most importantly, they are individual characters.
Durga, a young girl, desires a life similar to her friends', but the poverty in her household denies her that. Her great-aunt, an old woman who lives with the family, looks forward to her last days. Her relationship with Durga’s mother, Sarbojaya, is one of the highlights of the film. The love-hate element of their relationship is quite a sight to see. Sarbojaya hates the fact that this old woman's influence on Durga makes her more mischievous, but she understands that even in her old age, the old woman still loves the family.
Our protagonist, Apu, is actually born in the movie, and we witness the first few years of his life. But I wouldn’t consider Apu as the main character of this film because that honour belongs to his sister, Durga. For most of the story, we follow Durga. Even after she passes away, she remains the focal point of this movie. "Pather Panchali" is more of a journey than a film. In the film itself, the children have a fascination with trains, and the movie is like the train because it represents how human life just goes and keeps moving without waiting for anyone.
Aparajito (1956)
If "Pather Panchali" is through Durga’s journey, "Aparajito" is all about Sarbojaya, the matriarch of the family. In "Pather Panchali," we indeed explore her character, and in this film, we enhance that exploration and set up our boy Apu to embark upon his own journey. Now the family lives in Calcutta. The first thing you will notice while seeing the shot of that ancient city is how on earth Satyajit managed to create such beautiful imagery with the technology he possessed in the 1950s.
Despite living in a different place, and for a moment it felt like the family’s fortune might just turn around, Apu’s father passes away. Because if one thing is constant in the Apu trilogy, it is the fact that our boy Apu can’t catch a break. I’ll explain more about him shortly; first, we need to talk about Sarbojaya. Throughout the previous film and this one, Sarbojaya is a complex woman; she values honour more than anything. In "Pather Panchali," we see these aspects of her character emerge when other women accuse her daughter Durga of stealing jewellery. She straight out assaults her and casts her out.
When she sees her old great aunt get a blanket from some other relatives, she is willing to cast that old woman out of their house, just because she thinks her aunt asking others for favours makes her family look pathetic (this results in the poor old woman’s death). Sarbojaya cries and refuses to ask favours from her friend when everything in their family is breaking down due to poverty. So, it’s already established that we are dealing with a tough woman here who will do anything to protect her and her family’s honour.
From the beginning, it was established that men during that time were willing to do anything to get a nice wife. In one scene, we see a guy starving himself to save enough money so that he can get a bride. And in the upper portion of the family's house lives a lonely guy who also has an interest in Sarbojaya. The moment Apu’s father falls ill, the lonely neighbour tries to get his way with Sarbojaya, but she chases him off. It was clear to her that she couldn’t live in this city without any relatives, so she went to a different town to live.
Again, the train symbolizes that things happen, and people have to move on because Sarbojaya and Apu take the train to this new village. Now in the village, Apu takes upon his family tradition as a priest (it’s a Brahmin family, by the way; you may wonder if they are Brahmin, how they are shown eating fish, but Bengal Brahmins do eat fish). In this new town, Apu desires to study, and Sarbojaya, despite her poverty, decides to send him to school. And that’s where Apu finds his true strength in education; he becomes obsessed with studies and books. Apu is given a scholarship to study in the city, and he leaves Sarbojaya, again on a train. He begins to move away from her.
Then the film follows Apu’s development as a youngster and Sarbojaya's love for her son, who is kind of moving forward in life without her. But she loves her son so much that she doesn’t even inform him that she is sick, and when he arrives to check on her, she is already gone. But that’s the kind of woman Sarbojaya is: a strong woman who sacrificed everything for her loved ones and tried to protect them from the hardships of life, and I believe she did a decent job.
Mothers are often shown in a divine manner in Indian cinema, but Satyajit Ray breaks the typical structure and creates a humanistic character that we can relate to. That’s what character building is. Sarbojaya doesn’t change anything about her personality throughout the two films, yet it fits the story. Her circumstances and problems may change, but her personality remains the same. She is a great example of how to write a strong female character.
Apur Sansar / The World of Apu (1959)
My favourite. I would seriously write a 20-page analysis about this film, but Mohnish wants a compact version, so my hands are tied. If I could write those 20 pages, I think 10 of them would be about Aparna and how I want to go into the movie and marry her instead. Mr. Ray has created the ideal woman in Aparna, in my opinion. She was intentionally made as a perfect character. But it's not the boring kind of perfect; it’s just right. I have seen female characters, but no one has written the perfect wife like Mr. Ray did in this film. The film is about her, to be honest, because "Apu Sansar" means the world of Apu, and his world is his wife. It might sound cliche, but I think this is the best romance that I have ever seen on screen. The purity of their relationship, the young love, is unbelievably shown through the brilliance of Mr. Ray’s vision.
In the film, Mr. Ray finally gets an opportunity to show happiness in his beautiful filmmaking style. Because the man was stunned by the way he showed poverty and struggles in the previous instalments in the trilogy. The film starts with a carefree Apu who wants to be a writer now and is quite decent at writing but still struggling to make a living. Then one day, he goes to a village for a marriage function for his friend’s marriage. There, due to the groom being mentally disabled, Apu was asked to be the groom. He hesitated but agreed. (That turns out to be the best decision he ever made) because by sheer luck he got to marry an angel like Aparna who turns out to be the love of his life.
The young couple lived a modest life, not so rich but content with their love. Everything was rainbows and sunshine for a while. But sticking to the theme of the trilogy, Aparna dies in childbirth and Apu’s world crumbles. He really can’t catch a break, can he? But life is a tragedy; in reality, the happiness in it is rare and far between, and that is shown beautifully throughout the trilogy. Keeping with the train metaphor, Aparna hates trains. It's tragically foreshadowed when Aparna goes to her village for her childbirth, leaving Apu. Aparna’s hate for trains can be interpreted as she doesn’t want the moment to pass because throughout the trilogy, the train is used to show the end of a chapter in Apu’s life, and Aparna not liking trains can be interpreted as she doesn’t want this beautiful chapter to end. But of course, it ends, and now Apu has a son whom he never meets or takes care of. He doesn’t want anything to do with the kid.
In a way, he hates the kid for being the reason that killed his Aparna, but the moment he meets him, the hate he harbours disappears. The casting of the kid is perfect because he indeed looks like Aparna. The kid believes his father lives in Calcutta, and Apu is not his father; in a way, he is right; that kid’s father was Apu who lived in Calcutta, but the current nomad version of Apu doesn’t have the responsibility, hence he is not the real father. In the end, when Apu decides to leave, the kid asks him to bring him to Calcutta so he can meet his father. And Apu agrees. Apu carries the kid on his shoulder and begins to walk looking for a new start, and that’s when the film ends.
What a poetic end to this masterpiece. Whatever happens, life has to move on, and this ending shows exactly that. Just watch the trilogy because my words can only describe what I got from the films, but to see it is an experience all on its own. I understand why people recognize these films are classics that everyone should watch. What a making, what a story, and what a direction. Love these films.
Lingges Baskaran is a very passionate amateur film critic/journalist.
"I believe making a film is like making a baby and raising it, so I see every creator as a parent who wants their child to be celebrated or at least not insulted. Therefore, I personally believe we can criticise a film but never hurt anyone's feelings with our work."