And for many, including myself, this film, and the two that followed to make up the trilogy, are the most powerfully affecting works of art that cinema has produced. But the film eventually got made, and released in 1955. It was still a shoestring budget – certainly a joke by American or by European standards. Not surprisingly, the money ran out after a while, but by good fortune, John Huston happened to be passing through Calcutta, and, sufficiently impressed by what had been shot so far, he recommended the Government of West Bengal to provide funding for the rest. However, in an act that even with the benefit of hindsight seems foolhardy to the point of insanity, Ray raised what money he personally could employed the services of photographer Subrata Mitra, who had no experience of cine-photography (Ray apparently told him that he wanted the film to look like Cartier-Bresson’s photographs!) wrote a script brought together a cast of mostly (but not wholly) amateur actors and started shooting. He had briefly been Renoir’s assistant when the great man had come to India to film The River, but beyond a love of the medium of cinema, he had no credentials, and certainly no experience, to take on the direction of a film. Satyajit Ray, a commercial artist working in advertising, had dreams of filming the two novels Pather Panchali and Aparajito by Bibhuthi Bhushan Banerji*. ![]() The story of how these films came to be made is perhaps too well-known to need re-telling. They are films about people – people who, admittedly, happen to be poor. But a social document is exactly what this trilogy of films isn’t: these films are not specifically depictions of poverty, far less political statements. However, it is only fair to put up what is known as a “Spoiler Warning”.įilms about people living in poverty are usually described as “social dramas”, or even as “social documents”, as if it is expected that the principal theme of these films will be the poverty itself. ![]() ![]() However, these films do not rely on the plotlines to make their impact, and in my opinion at least, those who have yet to see the films, and are fortunate enough to be able to look forward to their first viewing, may read this without fear of having the experience of that first viewing spoilt. Please note that this post inevitably reveals some details concerning the plots of the three films comprising the “Apu Trilogy” – Pather Panchali, Aparajito, and Apur Sansar.
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