190 - The Unvanquished (Aparajito), 1956, India. Dir. Satyajit Ray.

Sunday, July 9, 2017

190 - The Unvanquished (Aparajito), 1956, India.  Dir. Satyajit Ray.

The Unvanquished.

No, this is not a William Faulkner novel.

It is Aparajito.  A Bengali (not Hindi) word meaning unbeatable, unbeaten, undefeated, unconquered, unbowed.

It is the second film by the quickly rising master of Indian cinema.

Satyajit Ray made his first feature, Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) in 1955.  Based on the novel by Bibhutibhushan Bannerjee.

His success was so great that he created a sequel the next year, based on the rest of Bannerjee's first novel and the beginning of his next novel.

It follows the next stage in the boy Apu's life, as his family, now without his sister Durga and their cousin Indir, move to the North Indian city of Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges.

A.D. 1920.  Bengal.

The Ganges.

People bathing.

Did you see the monkey outside?

No.

I meant your precious son.

This is Apu's father Harihar teasing with his mother Sarbajaya.

There are monkeys outside.  Lots of them.  Apu is outside as well.

Harihar is now a priest.  They plan to pray.  Sarbajaya invites Apu to join them.

"Aren't you going to bathe in the Ganges?  If you don't, you won't get salvation."

They pray to Sithra.

Apu is restless.  He runs around.  Climbs on the boat.  Watches the workers.  Goes about his day.

It turns out that Apu is smart.  When his father dies, his mother moves them back to Bengal where Apu excels in school.

The film follows Apu's continuing educational development, showcasing a great talent on the rise to prominence.

As Apu scores successive triumphs as a young scholar, he will eventually move away from home to study abroad, leaving his mother to worry over him and decline into loneliness.  The film deals with the tensions arising from their situation and the sacrifices of a mother's love.

Whatever successes Ray had with his first film, with his second film he had many more.

He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, beating out Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, a decision to which Kurosawa himself agreed.

He won awards at several other film festivals around the world and was inspired once again to make another sequel, tomorrow's Apu Sansar (1959), which completed the Apu Trilogy.

On a technical note, Ray's cinematographer developed bounce lighting to simulate the sky on an interior set.  He aimed lights up at a white cloth on the ceiling to reflect and diffuse the light as it came back down.

With this film Apu is on his way.

And so is Ray.