Aparajito (1956)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Satyajit Ray

Writers:

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (novel)
Satyajit Ray (writer)

Release Date:

1956 (India)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A boy leaves home to study in Calcutta, while his mother must face a life alone.

Plot Keywords:

Loss Of Mother | College Student | Death In Family | Sequel | Loss Of Father

Awards:

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 3 wins

Cast

Kanu Bannerjee	...	Harihar Ray
Karuna Bannerjee	...	Sarbojaya Ray
Pinaki Sengupta	...	Apu (young)
Smaran Ghosal	...	Apu (adolescent)
Santi Gupta	...	Ginnima
Ramani Sengupta	...	Bhabataran
Ranibala	...	Teliginni
Sudipta Roy	...	Nirupama
Ajay Mitra	...	Anil
Charuprakash Ghosh	...	Nanda
Subodh Ganguli	...	Headmaster
Mani Srimani	...	Inspector
Hemanta Chatterjee	...	Professor
Kali Bannerjee	...	Kathak
Kalicharan Roy	...	Akhil, press owner

Also Known As:

The Unvanquished

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

India

Language:

Bengali

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Canada:G (Ontario/Québec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Calcutta, West Bengal, India

Company:

Epic Productions

Trivia:

Much of Apu's story here is actually autobiographical regarding Satyajit Ray's own personal experiences. When Apu goes to Calcutta where he finds work and lodging with a printer, this is Ray directly reliving his youth, when he lived above his grandfather's printing press.

Quotes:

Sarbojaya Ray: What is there at Keoratola?
Apu: [sleepily] Burning hot...
Sarbojaya Ray: What?
Apu: They have cremations.
Sarbojaya Ray: I see... I hope you're careful on the roads. When are your finals? After that you can get a job and I'll stay with you. Will you have me? Will that ever be, I wonder? Who knows how long one has to live? Suppose I fall seriously ill,,,I'm not so well as I used to be. In the evenings I'm often feverish, I've no appetite. I thought of telling you...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

Haunting, moving, enduring

This is one of the few films that, ever since first viewing, have reverberated daily in my consciousness--and no doubt on a subconscious level as well.

If somebody wanted to acclaim "Aparajito" as the finest film ever made, I would not offer resistance, though of course that's a kind of meaningless claim to make. It's similar to calling Mozart the finest composer who ever lived--meaningless, yet somehow appropriate.

See "Aparajito" and find out if you don't agree. This film can change the way you look at life and human interaction--forever.

Only slightly weaker, in my opinion, is the first of the three films in this "Apu Trilogy," "Pather Panchali." "Pather Panchali" may be even stronger than "Aparajito" in that it repeatedly reaches heart-wrenching emotional peaks with the slightest of cinematic means. Both films are testimony to the great human heart of Satyajit Ray, surely one of the masterful geniuses of any day, in any medium.

I wish the third member of the trilogy, "The World of Apu," lived up to the standard of the first two. Unfortunately, it's flawed by an excess of sentimentality and melodrama. Still a fine film by ordinary standards, it does fail when measured against its two masterful predecessors. But that's often the way in multi-volume works.

All three films should be seen by anybody who considers film important as a means of human communication, or who cherishes learning about other cultures, or who simply feels in need of some affirmation of the occasional nobility of spirit and mysterious ways of the souls of ordinary human beings.