Page 123 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

110 The Apu Trilogy

I get so much of a punch as I got from Aparajito on my fi rst
viewing, and continue to get even now.

In my own view, the evocation of the sacred city of Benares –
Apu’s new home after leaving Nishchindipur – in the first section
of Aparajito (about a third of the film) easily matches in richness
and variety the evocations of Apu’s village and nature in Pather
Panchali and of his Calcutta environment and its urban grime
in The World of Apu. If the remaining two-thirds of Aparajito is
sometimes a less rich experience, notably in its Calcutta scenes,
the viewer is compensated by the finest performance of any actor
in the Apu Trilogy – not excluding Chunibala Devi as Indir in
Pather Panchali or Soumitra Chatterji as Apu in The World of Apu:
that of Karuna Banerji as Sarbajaya. From her first appearance
in a Benares courtyard to her death in the village of Mansapota
at the end of Aparajito, she unifies it with her total conviction as
Apu’s mother – even more than with her performance in Pather
Panchali.
Certainly, Aparajito is neither as lyrical as Pather Panchali, nor
as moving as The World of Apu, but its characterisation is the
deepest in the three films, by virtue of Sarbajaya and her rela-
tionship with her son. Although one may have little sympathy
with her comparatively narrow and passive outlook on life, one
cannot avoid becoming emotionally entangled in the poignancy
of her predicament. For Apu to be free to grow and realise his tal-
ents, Sarbajaya must be abandoned and die: this profound truth
is what gripped Satyajit Ray in the novel Aparajito, as we know.
An unflinching honesty pervades the film, also seen in Pather
Panchali (for instance, in Sarbajaya’s rejection of Indir Thakrun)
and The World of Apu (for example, Apu’s rejection of his infant
son), yet in neither of those films is this sustained throughout
the film, as it is throughout Aparajito.
Before Sarbajaya and Apu make their appearance, the film
opens with a sort of timeless documentary montage of intriguing
images and a babel of sounds, where barely a word is articulated

9/16/2010 9:08:48 PM
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Robinson_Ch06.indd 110 9/16/2010 9:08:48 PM