Page 174 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

9

Apu in the East and West:

The Trilogy and Ray Today

Although Satyajit Ray made more than 30 feature films, his
Apu Trilogy, and Pather Panchali in particular, remains his most
famous work – in Bengal, in India as a whole and in the rest of
the world. The Apu Trilogy is the most regularly revived of his
films, and by far the best selling on DVD. When Hollywood –
nudged by Martin Scorsese and the producer Ismail Merchant –
gave Ray an Academy Award for his lifetime achievement as a
film-maker, just before his death, Pather Panchali was the chief
focus of attention in Audrey Hepburn’s Oscar presentation cer-
emony. As the writer Arthur C. Clarke, who knew Ray person-
ally, remarked on the occasion of Ray’s 70th birthday in 1991:
‘I must admit I get rather restive when people write saying that
my first published story was my best: perhaps Satyajit feels the
same about his own first-born. But surely Pather Panchali is one
of the most heart-breakingly beautiful films ever made; there
are scenes which I need never view again, because they are burnt
into my memory.’
In the course of researching my biography of Ray in the 1980s,
I asked him about this situation. ‘There’s no question that Pather

9/16/2010 9:09:29 PM
Robinson_Ch09.indd 161 9/16/2010 9:09:29 PM
Robinson_Ch09.indd 161