Page 151 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

138 The Apu Trilogy

marry again. He certainly has his reasons to take his own life,
and yet his moment of decision seems to depend not on reason,
nor even on emotion, but on a chance event: the stopping of
his bedside clock. (Chance will also save him, in the shape of a
wandering pig that is killed by the train on the tracks just ahead
of him with a blood-curdling squeal.) The clock stops ticking
while Apu is staring at his haggard reflection in the mirror;
some silent seconds pass, then he hears the long mournful whis-
tle of a train and turns slightly towards the sound; he now knows
the method by which he will kill himself. This shot recalls the
very similar moment in Aparajito when Sarbajaya happens to
see Apu behaving like a servant, ponders silently, hears a train
whistle, turns slightly towards the sound, and decides to leave
Benares. Both shots plumb the unfathomable nature of thinking
to a depth found in the work of very few other directors.
Somewhat less convincing, at least in my view (and that of Robin
Wood), is the style of Apu’s renunciation of all his ties to Calcutta,
including his unfinished novel, after he decides to live. Travelling
away from the city by train, he journeys to the coast, the forest and
the hills to find freedom from his old life. As Ray explained:

The fact of the death of the wife in childbirth is obviously

a traumatic experience for him. An experience like that can
bring about very strong, far-reaching changes in a man’s
outlook on life and death and the meaning of existence etc.
He’s absolutely shattered by the death because it happens so
quickly. And the next step – that’s very Indian. Probably it
doesn’t appeal to the West so much, but I think it’s probably
in keeping with Indian philosophy and the Indian attitude
to life. Certainly in Bibhutibhusan [Banerji] it’s very strong.
Anyway, I’m quite happy with the transition from a mood of
suicide to a mood of renunciation.

Apu’s renunciation, his immersion in nature and his odyssey
around India are indeed integral to the novel at this point. ‘Being

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