Aparajito

Aparajito
File:Aparajito title card.jpg Aparajito title card
Directed by	Satyajit Ray
Written by	Satyajit Ray, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay (story)
Starring	Kanu Banerjee Karuna Banerjee Pinaki Sengupta Smaran Ghosal
Music by	Ravi Shankar
Release dates	1956 25 April, 1959 (NYC)
Running time	110 min
Language	Bengali

Aparajito ([অপরাজিত, Ôporajito] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help) tr. The Unvanquished) is an award-winning 1956 Bengali film, directed by Satyajit Ray. It is the second part of Ray's Apu Trilogy, and is adapted from the last one-fifth of Bibhutibhushan Bannerjee's novel Pather Panchali and the first one-third of its sequel Aparajita. It focuses on the life of Apu from childhood to college. The film won eleven international awards, including the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival.

Plot

The film begins with Apu's family getting settled in an apartment close to a ghat in Benares in 1920. Here Apu (Pinaki Sengupta) makes new friends in no time. While his mother Sarbajaya (Karuna Banerjee) stays at home, his father Harihar (Kanu Banerjee) works as a priest. On a Diwali day, Harihar develops a fever and takes rest lying in bed, as Apu comforts him. However, the next day, he leaves for his work as usual towards the ghat, ignoring his wife's advice to take more rest. While coming back to home, he collapses on the stairs of the ghat, and dies soon afterwards.

File:Pather Panchali2.jpg

Apu and his mother

In Harihar's absence, it becomes Sarbajaya's responsibility to earn money for the family. She starts working as a maidservant. A relative invites them to return to their ancestral village in Dewanpur (in Rajshahi Division, modern-day Bangladesh). They come back and settle in a village called Mansapota. Apu asks his mother to send him to a school. Apu studies diligently in the school. He receives a scholarship to go to Calcutta. Sarbajaya, though impressed, does not want to let her son leave. She soon gives in, albeit reluctantly, and helps him prepare to leave. From this point, an eternal conflict starts between the young man's ambitions and the mother who loves him.

Apu (Smaran Ghosal) starts working at a printing press after school, in order to make a living. Sarbajaya is desperate for his news and expects visits from him, but Apu manages to visit only a few times and feels out of place in Mansapota. Sarbajaya becomes seriously ill, but does not disclose her illness to Apu. When he finally comes to know about her poor health, he leaves for the village and finds that she has already died. A relative requests him to stay back there and to work as a priest. Apu rejects the idea and returns to Calcutta. He performs the last rites for his mother there.

Reception

Aparajito won the Golden Lion at the 1957 Venice Film Festival. Ray got Golden Gate Awards for the Best Director in San Francisco International Film Festival in 1958 for this film. The film won "Bodil Award: Best Non-European Film of the Year" from Denmark in 1967. In 2005, The Apu Trilogy was included in Time magazine's All-time 100 greatest movies list.

Film critic James Berardinelli wrote:

"Aparajito was filmed forty years ago, half way around the world, yet the themes and emotions embedded in the narrative are strikingly relevant to modern Western society (thus explaining why it is called a "timeless classic")... Aparajito is an amazing motion picture. Its rich, poetic composition is perfectly wed to the sublime emotional resonance of the narrative. For those who have seen Pather Panchali, Aparajito provides a nearly-flawless continuation of the journey begun there. Yet, for those who missed Ray's earlier effort, this film loses none of its impact. On its own or as part of the Apu Trilogy, Aparajito should not be missed."

Awards

Venice Film Festival

• Winner - 1957 - Golden Lion of St. Mark for Best Film
• Winner - 1957 - Cinema Nuovo Award
• Winner - 1957 - Critics Award

Berlin International Film Festival

• Winner - 1960 - Selznick Golden Laurel for Best Film

British Film Institute Awards, London Film Festival

• Winner - 1957 - FIPRESCI Award
• Winner - 1980 - Wington Award [1]

San Francisco International Film Festival

• Winner - 1958 - Golden Gate for Best Picture
• Winner - 1958 - Golden Gate for Best Director - Satyajit Ray
• Winner - 1958 - International Critics' Award

Bodil Awards (Denmark)

• Winner - 1967 - Best Non-European Film

Golden Laurel (United States)

• Winner - 1958-1959 - Best Foreign Film [2]

British Academy Film Awards (United Kingdom)

• Nominated - 1959 - BAFTA Award for Best Film
• Nominated - 1959 - BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress - Karuna Banerjee

Cast

• Pinaki Sengupta as young Apu
• Smaran Ghosal as adolescent Apu
• Kanu Banerjee as Harihar, Apu's father
• Karuna Banerjee as Sarbajaya, Apu's mother

Bibliography

• Template:Harvard reference.

External links

• Aparajito at IMDb
• Aparajito (SatyajitRay.org)
• Comparisons of film versions of Aparajito
• Reelviews review of Aparajito