Page 138 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

Aparajito: Critique 125

Aparajito: Sarbajaya and neighbour, not long before Sarbajaya’s death

The final scene – Apu’s return, too late, to Mansapota – does
not directly portray his mingling of grief and joy, so crucial to
the novel. Ray is too oblique an artist for this. Apu’s state of
mind emerges not from his words, but from his actions. Instead
of staying in the village to perform his mother’s memorial ritu-
als, as expected by his ageing uncle, he packs up his mother’s few
possessions and departs again for Calcutta to take his college
examinations. Apu will perform the rituals in the city, he informs
his uncle, not remain in the village as a priest. The last we see
of him he is walking, alone, back along the familiar path, now
bare-foot out of traditional respect for his late mother, gradually
disappearing into the distance to the accompaniment of a flute
hesitantly playing the main theme of Pather Panchali. Though
churning inside, not for one instant does Apu look back.

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