Page 160 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

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From Calcutta to Cannes:

The Reception of the Apu Trilogy

In the decades after the release of the Apu Trilogy in the 1950s,
beginning with Pather Panchali in Bengal in 1955, two myths grew
up about its original reception. One was that it was a failure in
India until its success in the West. The other was that its success
in the West was immediate and unqualified. Both myths were
fostered by two unquestionable facts. First, Satyajit Ray’s films
always had a very small market in India compared to Bollywood
films – which helped to make the first myth plausible. Secondly,
the artistic distinction of his films was always far more widely
appreciated by western critics and audiences than by Indian
ones – which obviously encouraged the second myth. However,
neither myth is actually supported by the historical evidence.
Although the Indian and western reception of Pather Panchali,
and the Apu Trilogy as a whole, was fairly complicated, as a gen-
eralisation it is true that Pather Panchali was a triumphant success
in Bengal in 1955 and that the Apu Trilogy divided western crit-
ics and audiences into fervent admirers and apathetic detractors,
beginning with the film festival juries at Cannes in 1956 and at
Venice in 1957. As a further generalisation, the official class in
India showed a shameful, philistine indifference or opposition

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