L'invitto

Each of the three films of the Apu Trilogy exhibit the extraordinary quality of a documentary film on the conditions of life in India at the time they are set. I think this is what I like best in them through numerous viewings. The films are shot in locations that appear untouched by any art department - remote countryside in Bengal, the great cities - Benares and Calcutta. The characters eke out an adequate life in their sufficient poverty - a life sustained by their faith and simple devotion to one another. At the same time there are moments that are pure cinema. There is an exquisite swish pan cut from Kurana (the mother) leaning against a tree, full of emptiness as Apu has just left for Calcutta, to the swift dynamo of the train crossing a bridge with the trestles a blur. At the moment Kanu (the father) gives up his soul a flock of birds alights over the Ganges. Later as Kurana is gradually sinking into the depths of loneliness - a sickness unto death - she has a vision of fireflies swirling around in the falling darkness.

These films traverse the drama of life and death touching gently on all of the salient points along the path. They put us face to face with the challenge of living in a world, which constantly give us disappointment. At the same time there is a celebration of that ineffable quality which gives life meaning.

Each of the three films of the Apu Trilogy exhibit the extraordinary quality of a documentary film on the conditions of life in India at the time they are set. I think this is what I like best in them through numerous viewings. The films are shot in locations that appear untouched by any art department - remote countryside in Bengal, the great cities - Benares and Calcutta. The characters eke out an adequate life in their sufficient poverty - a life sustained by their faith and simple devotion to one another. At the same time there are moments that are pure cinema. There is an exquisite swish pan cut from Kurana (the mother) leaning against a tree, full of emptiness as Apu has just left for Calcutta, to the swift dynamo of the train crossing a bridge with the trestles a blur. At the moment Kanu (the father) gives up his soul a flock of birds alights over the Ganges. Later as Kurana is gradually sinking into the depths of loneliness - a sickness unto death - she has a vision of fireflies swirling around in the falling darkness.

These films traverse the drama of life and death touching gently on all of the salient points along the path. They put us face to face with the challenge of living in a world, which constantly gives us disappointment. At the same time there is a celebration of that ineffable quality which gives life meaning.

Ray's 'Aparajito' continues with its second installment as we see the beautiful but harsh world through the eyes of 'Apu'. Ray's portrayal of Apu's innocence and curiosity during his maturation into adolescence was spectacular. However, the pinnacle of the film is heart wretching performance of Apu's Mother, whose portrayal of fretfulness, nurturing, and loneliness pulled at this reviewer's heart strings. Although this film is filled with moments of sadness and despair, this film is about Apu weathering the seemingly endless storm of personal tragedy and eventually reaching maturation.

'Aparajito', the second film of Satyajit Ray's brilliant 'Apu Trilogy', is one of the great masterpieces of film. The gritty realism melds expertly with the beautiful shot selection and cinematography. In fact, I would say Ray's India is presented at least as well as John Ford's American West. What is essentially a simple tale of one particular family turns into an epic of emotion and the difficulties of growing up. Truly amazing.

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.