Aparajito

Aparajito

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Movie Reviews of Aparajito

Movie Review: The middle film of Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy
Summary: 5 Stars

The climax of this film comes when Apu finally learns of his mother's illness and has to decide if he will stay for his final exams or return to her side and skip the exams. Based on the novel "Aparajito" by Bibhutibhushan Banerjee, at the heart of Satyajit Ray's film adaptation is the performance of Bannerjee as a woman who has lost everything in the world except a beloved son who is to busy to even bother to write her a letter (like father, like son, for those who have seen "Pather Panchali"). This film is not as powerful as it predecessor, but that is invariably true of all middle films in a movie trilogy, and the finale, "Apur Sansar" is a great climax. However, there is also the fact that Apu is not a particularly sympathetic figure. We appreciate that he is good at his studies, but that and life in the city consume him while his mother sits at home, getting weaker, and wondering when she will see him again.

Two of the pillars on which Ray's cinematic success is based is his cinematographer, Subrata Mitra, who had been a still photographer when Ray drafted him to film these movies, and the then unknown Ravi Shankar, whose music often takes the place of voices in these films. When they gave Ray his honorary Oscar in 1992, shortly before the director's death, they cited him: "For his rare mastery of the art of motion pictures and for his profound humanitarian outlook, which has had an indelible influence on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world." Individually and collectively, the Apu Trilogy certainly provides ample evidence in support of the claim.