El invicto

After watching Pather Panchali, I watched the sequel Aparajito the next day. My only criticism with the first film was the slow pace, but it looks like Satyajit Ray improved on this aspect for the sequel and thus eliminated any pacing issues I may have had with the original. This time the story moved along at a fairly quick pace, as we see months and sometimes years go by in a matter of minutes.

Although I often hear about Pather Panchali being regarded as the best in the Apu Trilogy, I personally liked Aparajito even better than the first. The story was gripping throughout the entire film, Karuna Bannerjee gave a truly Oscar-worthy performance as Apu's mother (even though it was only her second film) and the ending was just as powerful as the original (although Pather Panchali had a more powerful theme music). In fact, I might even go as far as saying Aparajito could possibly be my favourite film of all time.

10/10