Page 101 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

88 The Apu Trilogy

caused a problem for Ravi Shankar when he went on a tour of
the United States after Pather Panchali was released [there] in
1958’, noted Ray in his autobiography with a touch of relish. ‘At
one of his recitals he was asked by a member of the audience to
play the candy-man music from the film.’ Shankar said he had
forgotten how the music went!
Both Pather Panchali and Aparajito, especially the second film,
suffered from Shankar’s lack of availability (though not The World
of Apu). They contained passages of oppressive silence, Ray felt,
where music would have helped relieve the slowness. By way of
example, ‘In Aparajito, after Harihar’s death, the very first day
Sarbajaya and Apu arrive in the village, dusk is falling and there
is practically nothing happening, nothing to see – almost noth-
ing to hear – in that long sequence,’ Ray said. ‘I feel so awkward
when I see the scene. But Ravi Shankar hadn’t provided any
music and I didn’t have the confidence to write any.’ Still, Ray
was grateful to Shankar for the music he did compose, because
by 1956 the sitarist was in tremendous demand for concerts, both
in India and internationally.
Regrettably, Shankar himself never discussed in any detail his
music for the Apu Trilogy, perhaps partly because much of it
had been inspired by Ray. He did not say, for instance, what may
have influenced his creation of the main theme of Pather Panchali
before he had even seen the rough cut. This is despite the fact
that he thought his music for the trilogy was the best film music
he had ever composed. In Raga Mala, he noted that Ray wrote
to him once to say that it was a pity he could not give more time
to his film compositions, and admitted: ‘This was true – it was
a hit-and-run affair whenever I recorded the score for anyone: I
arrived in the city, saw the film, then went to the studio and did
the music. I never had time to stay for editing, mixing or improv-
ing it. Yet I do believe that whatever came first was always the
best, and when I tried to redo a score it was not as good.’
Neither Ray nor Shankar ever said so explicitly, but Ray’s 1951
fascinating proposed documentary about him probably failed to

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