Page 51 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

38 The Apu Trilogy

the film Aparajito consisted, said Ray, ‘of improvisations on that
extraordinarily revealing statement.’
The Apu of the third film is a nobler creation than the Apu of
the novel. Ray dispenses with some of his contradictions, atten-
uates his narcissism and draws him as someone of heightened
sensitivity and refined emotion – more of an artist than Banerji’s
Apu. In the novel, Apu is content to leave Aparna in the village
for about a year after their marriage; and when she dies in child-
birth, he reacts to the news in Calcutta with a calmness that
surprises even himself, and continues dully with his office life
for some while. Ray, on the other hand, was ‘very touched by the
fact that although it’s an arranged marriage they fall in love’, and
decided to emphasise this in the film. When Aparna dies in The
World of Apu, by contrast, Apu lashes out at her brother in grief,
attempts suicide and abruptly abandons the city.
The author’s Apu also has a much wider contact with girls
before he meets Aparna than does Ray’s. While still a boy in
Benares, the Apu of the last part of Pather Panchali becomes
attached to Lila, the privileged grand-daughter of the rich man
his mother works for, with an affection she reciprocates. When
he goes back to the village, he feels Lila’s absence very strongly.
Later, Apu continues to visit Lila in Calcutta occasionally, and
she is part of the influence of the city in alienating Apu from his
mother. After Aparna’s death he comes close to her again; at one
point, she offers to sponsor the publication of Apu’s novel, which
has been rejected by conventional publishers. However, Apu’s
relationship with Lila is never an affair in the usual sense of a
physical passion. According to the novel, ‘Lila was his childhood
companion; he felt a tender affection for her, compassion and a
strong bond of friendship, almost as if she was his sister.’ In Ray’s
view, ‘They have nice conversations but it never amounts to any
deep relationship.’
Nonetheless, he allowed, ‘Bibhutibhusan had laid so much
stress on the Apu–Lila relationship that I was a bit worried about
leaving her out altogether.’ Ray therefore tried, but failed, to find

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