Page 99 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

86 The Apu Trilogy

the arrival of the monsoon] was originally played as one of the
several variations on the main theme with no specific scene in

mind. In fact, there was no scene of dancing insects in the fi lm
at this stage; it grew out of the music in the cutting room.

In Aparajito, the same five instruments were used, either solo
or in various combinations. But in The World of Apu, the musical
situation was more complicated, wrote Ray:

In Apur Sansar, Ravi Shankar had to contend with a story that

was much more varied in texture than the first two fi lms of
the trilogy. It begins in a squalid north Calcutta setting, shifts
to the countryside for Apu’s wedding, comes back to Calcutta
and, after the death of Apu’s wife, accompanies the discon-
solate hero on his wanderings from seaside to sylvan woods,
to the wild and hilly coal-mining areas of Chhota Nagpur,
returning finally to the Bengal countryside for the concluding

scenes. Five Indian instruments were obviously inadequate to
cope with all this, so Ravi Shankar decided to add violins and
cellos (even a piano for one particular piece). Also, the usual
hectic one-day session was abandoned, and the music was
composed and recorded over three days.

On the LP release, the music is divided into the following
tracks. For Pather Panchali: ‘Title Music’, ‘Variation on the Main
Theme’, ‘Indir’s Song’, ‘The Dance of the Waterbugs’, ‘Durga
Dances in the Rain’, ‘Life without Durga’, ‘Sarbajaya’s Grief’
and ‘The Family Leaves the Village’. For Aparajito: ‘Title Music’,
‘Harihar Collapses’, ‘Variation on the Main Theme’, ‘Apu Grows
Up’, ‘Sarbajaya’s Loneliness’ and ‘Apu Leaves for the City’. For
The World of Apu: ‘Title Music’, ‘Variation on the Main Theme’,
‘Apu Comes Home with Bride’, ‘Life with Aparna’, ‘Aparna Is
No More’ and ‘Apu’s Renunciation’.
In the mid-1980s, when the screenplay of the Apu Trilogy
was published in English translation, Ray was somewhat more

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