Aparajito (1956)
Review of Aparajito / অপরাজিত (1956), directed by Satyajit Ray
Ever since wrapping up my program with AIIS in Kolkata, where I was studying Bangla, I feel this strange kind of yearning. Perhaps it’s because I was supposed to go the cities and villages in which this film was created in, how I felt really attached to this language in a way I’ve never felt before, even with Korean. The Bengalis wormed their way into my heart, man.
I first watched a Satyajit Ray movie while on program to practice my listening skills, which was the original of the Apu Trilogy (Pather Panchali), and, ironically, having watched that movie and understood Ray’s connection with Shankar saved me because a question on one of our tests was to translate a passage about Ray and Shankar’s relationship.
Aparajito has a very similar way of worming into your heart. It starts off slow but begins to crank up in intensity, slowing becoming more emotional for the viewer. It’s also a very quiet film, one that seems quite unsuspecting at first, idyllic with its shots of Bengali village life in West Bengal.
As someone dies in the film, we cut to birds flocking in the sky, a somber soundtrack of Shankar’s sitar playing in the background. It all meshes together so perfectly, in a way that is beautifully cinematic.
Let’s dive into this review, shall we?
Content
Satyajit Ray is one of the most beloved Bengali movie directors, and if you’re new to Bengali cinema, then the Apu Trilogy is a classic starting point. Aparajito is the second film in the trilogy and we follow our protagonist, Apu, from his boyhood to being a student in Kolkata. The family has recently located from the villages of Bengal to Varanasi, a city in Uttar Pradesh.
His father is a priest and can often be found at the ghats, which are known in Varanasi. They’re like steep inclines of hills, often developed with steps and flat areas to rest on. This is where we get some stunning shots of the local culture, of singing and ritual, and how the everyday people interact with each other in a religious and social context.
But tragedy strikes when Apu’s father dies, and his mother takes them back to her village in Bengal. With no income trickling in, Apu’s mother is forced to work, and Apu begins training as a priest but also goes to school. It is there it is discovered he is immensely gifted, and, ultimately, is offered the opportunity to study science in the big city of Kolkata on a scholarship.
He accepts, and while his mother is heartbroken that he is leaving her, she gives him thirty rupees to live off of in the beginning. And so the film begins to unfold in a specific manner after this moment, portraying the complicated son and mother relationship they hold, as well as the lives and dreams between different generations in 1950s India.
This movie hits right home on a specific generation gap that’s become popular as of lately, even fifty years after the making of this film. Spoiler, but Apu’s mother dies at the end of the film. He hasn’t been in communication with her, nor does he visit that often. He has achieved his dream of studying science in Kolkata, but has abandoned his mother and family in the process. As he discovers his mother has died when the house is empty, he weeps as if he’s putting on a show, like he has to.
But once he is done weeping, he packs up his things and leaves emotionlessly, refusing to even touch or hug his relative, who watches him leave with shock. Apu has become what the older generation feared of, of the children who won’t even look their parents in the eyes. He has left behind the traditional life he grew up in, choosing science over religion, and won’t even have his mother’s death arrangements done where she lived. Instead, he carelessly remarks about how he’ll do it in Kolkata.
The way India was filmed, whether it be Varanasi, Kolkata, or rural Bengal, is absolutely beautiful. I think there’s something quiet about the way Ray filmed his homeland, especially with the juxtaposition of traditional music imposed onto the actual scenes themselves. We also get some awesome shots of Apu’s grief-stricken mother, who is the true hero in this story to me.
While Apu is young while his father dies, he is able to forget his father’s death and move on with his life and follow his dreams. But losing both her husband and her son was just too much for his poor mother, which is the tragedy of this all. How she supported Apu, never told him she was sick, and does her quote-on-quote duty as a mother. What a powerful woman she was.
Overall Thoughts
Some think that this is the weakest movie in the trilogy, but, to be quite honest, all of these movies knock the ball out of the park. I think it’s nothing like we really see in mainstream Hollywood, especially when compared to the Hollywood films being produced at the time (think late-stage Marilyn Monroe, early-stage Audrey Hepburn). It’s also a very hard film to digest though, because of the complicated relationships between the characters.
If you’re going to start anywhere with Bengali cinema (or, hell, even with South Asian or Indian cinema in general), I think this is a solid pick. Even so, you need to watch all of Ray’s films. The man was a genius.
