Page 124 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

Aparajito: Critique 111

in the first four or five minutes, which establishes the unique
atmosphere of the bathing ghats in Benares. To quote the pub-
lished screenplay:

A train rumbles across a bridge. Through the window, steel

girders flash past, revealing brief glimpses of a wide river, the
holy Ganges.
TITLE: Varanasi [Benares]. Year 1327 (Bengali calendar)
[1920].
Dawn over the city of Varanasi. Near the ghat, an old man

stands on a flat roof, scattering grain. A flock of pigeons fl utter
over the roofs of buildings, the air reverberating with the noise
of their wings. There are pigeons everywhere, on the carved

temple walls, on the thatch covering of sunshades on the ghat
steps, over the water at the edge of the river. They come fl ap-

ping their wings at the call of the old man, and settle down on
the roof where he stands. There are people everywhere too. An

old widow sits praying under a torn sunshade. Men, women
and children bathe in the river. Th e kathak thakurs recite holy
verses, surrounded by devotees. The temple bells ring in the

morning air. In the river, boats lie moored in the shallows.
Fishing nets rest against the walls of the ghat.
Harihar carries the holy water of the river in a little brass
pot, up the steps of the ghat. He stops to collect his glasses
from another kathak who sits under a neighbouring sunshade
on the steps, smears some sindur [vermilion] on his forehead

from the coconut shell that the kathak offers him, then goes
up the steps again. He enters one of the narrow meandering
lanes of the city, sprinkling holy water on the deities placed
on either side of the lane. He turns into a narrower lane and
enters a door on the right. It is an old-fashioned brick house.

The rooms, in two storeys, are built around a small courtyard.

The Rays live on the ground floor. Sarbajaya is washing the
courtyard, sweeping the water away with a broom. Harihar
hangs his shawl on the clothes-line.

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