Aparajito
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Movie Reviews of Aparajito
Movie Review: Moving relationship between mother and son!
Summary: 5 Stars
The Apu Trilogy was recently named in Time magazine's 100 greatest films. Satyajit Ray, 1921-1992, one of the world's finest directors was born into a family of elite that includes musicians, physicians, scientist, author, illustrator, photographer, singer, etc. Made in the late 50's, the trilogy is set in the 20's. Ray's career lists an impressive number of movies, books, documentaries, etc. Passionate for film at a very young age he was influenced by the greatest.
His movies capture humanistic elements - relationships, behaviors, social issues, conflicts. He allows the viewer to grasp these emotions that leave you thinking. Ray has been known to use memorable characters with distinguished faces.
If you plan on viewing this, see the Pather Panchali, the first of the trilogy. You will learn that the family experiences economic, ecological & emotional hardships. Tragedy strikes and the family moves to the city. Sarbojaya endured lonliness and desperation, and sheer frustration while living in poverty.
Now, in the second movie, Aparajito, Sarbojaya faces a life without a husband, and her remaining child begs for an education; wins a scholarship and travels to Calcutta for further studies. Like his father, Apu is now away from home on long stretches, as he will embark on a journey to be educated. His mother tries to make him feel guilty about leaving, with no one to care for her, but he isn't too concerned about her lonliness.
What puzzled me was that this appears to be a loving family, but when Apu goes away to Calcutta to study, or arrives for a visit, his mother and he do not as much as exchange a hug. Perhaps this is the custom, but I found it ironic.
This DVD is at times difficult to read, with white letters against no black background. And, unfortunately, the DVD lacks commentary!! How wonderful it would be to have had commentary about Ray and his vision as a director. If you value film from world's greatest directors, include Satyajit Ray ......Rizzo
Movie Review: Sarbajaya's Struggle for Meaning
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the second film in director Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy and is best viewed after Pather Panchali and followed by The World of Apu. Harihar (Kanu Bannerjee) takes his wife, Sarbajaya (Karuna Bannerjee) and their son Apu to live in Benares. Their family home has been destroyed in the monsoon and with the loss of their daughter, they are struggling to cope emotionally as well as financially.
I found this movie to be more about the struggle Sarbajaya (Apu's mother) faces on a daily basis. She is an example of a woman who has given up her desires for the good of her family. As she cares for her family on a daily basis you can see how she is sinking into the darkest of depression. Not only is she terribly lonely, she does not fully recover from the loss of her daughter. While she is surrounded by members of her immediate community, she seems to strangely isolated and alone and the unfulfilled desires of her heart seem to weave an invisible and yet debilitating cocoon around her soul.
Throughout this movie, her sacrifice becomes even more beautiful as it allows Apu to see some of his own dreams come to fruition. Apu's father makes his living reading sacred texts by the shores of the Ganges River and then suddenly falls ill. Apu must continue his education and find his own way in this harsh world.
I love the scene where Apu pretends to miss the train and when his mother worries about what they are feeding him at school. The first few scenes also show birds sitting on umbrellas and then taking off suddenly. Could this be a foreshadowing for the situation in which Apu finally finds himself? I found these movies have quite a few "foreshadowing" moments that I only recognized on the second viewing. Which is why the Apu Trilogy must be watched more than once to be fully appreciated. These are finely woven stories that deal with the deepest human issues we all must face at some point in our lives.
~The Rebecca Review
Movie Review: My Favorite of the Trilogy
Summary: 5 Stars
This was my favorite of the three Apu films, perhaps because it has the most time without prolonged misery. This film was much easier to watch than the first. If you had trouble with that film, I would recommend you first watch the 2001 NZ film Rain before moving onto this film. Rain was obviously strongly influenced by Pather Panchali. By moving us slowly though Apu's life in the three movies, Ray shows us the world as it appeared coming out of a small rural Bengali village. In the first film, Apu's father ventured out of the village, but the cameras never did. In this film, Apu makes it to medium sized towns, and eventually to the Bengali Manhattan of Calcutta.
If you enjoyed these films, I would recommend looking up the 1960 film "A Cloud-Capped Star" by director R. Ghatak. For a look at an upscale Indian life that Apu would never see, Mira Nair's 2001 hit Monsoon Wedding is a nice antidote to Ray's brand of Dravidian misery (although I recommend watching it on DVD with the English subtitles on to ease understanding).
As to the DVD quality of Aparajito, its really no better than the VHS tapes readily available, although its nice to see that the film is at least getting some attention. Ray's "Days and Nights in the Forest" (1970) and "Distant Thunder" (1973) are also long overdue for restoration and re-release.
Movie Review: What makes a man?
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the second entry of a famous Trilogy (Panther Pancahli was the first one and The world of Apu the last one). Satyajit Ray was essentially, a poet of the image, an untiring searcher of the total expression about cinema means. His notable traveling, his expressive close ups, the admirable sense of the contrasts, that confers him a superb status among the giants of the world cinema.
Aparajito is fundamentally, the story of a boy who becomes a man through a rigorous process of growing up. After his father's death. Apu decides to study in Calcutta, despite the ferrous opposition of his mother; so against all odds, he makes the journey(once more the unerring mythic seed beneath the plot), and he demonstrates to be a very clever and intelligent pupil. The adolescence is by definition, an age of sudden changes, meditations and doubts. Far from his birth land he will know and deal with those little miseries of the life but also with the significance of the personal effort as a continuous work in progress.
Arresting images, sharp contrasts with the Ganges river working out as a big frame, a realist script with towering performances make of this movie one of the best films in cinema's story without a bit of doubt.
A must-see.
Movie Review: brilliant film.....
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the second installment in the "Apu Trilogy," by masterful Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
Apu (Pinaki Sengupta, as the young Apu and Smaran Ghosal, as the adolescent) has relocated with his mother (Karuna Bannerjee) and father (Kanu Bannerjee) to Banares. Apu's father is working as a medicine man there, and Apu is very ambitious to start school with the other young boys. This follows the life of this family, its joys, struggles and the choice Apu must make to either pursue the life of his father (as a priest) or venture out to Calcutta, as a scholarship student, to build a foundation for himself.
This film was shot beautifully and is really a great example of marvelous storytelling. Also, the acting is brilliant. The two young men who portray Apu as a child and a young man are wonderful and engaging--particularly Pinaki Sengupta whose eyes say so much in the scenes between him and his parents that there is very little need for dialogue. Beautiful.......
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