Apur Panchali - Review

A lil late in the day to write a review on the movie but then we did have a late release in Mumbai. Now there is a special thrill watching a movie of your native language playing in Mumbai, where, in that small movie hall you seek a solidarity in all the fellow lingual natives sharing the experience with you, though in this case the movie was good no matter the language and if you happen to be a Ray movie buff then it's definitely an added bonus.

Apur Panchali traces the story of Subir Banerjee, the person who played Apu in Ray's Pather Panchali. Based on a true story, the movie brings forth the question which most of us did not even think of acknowledging : What happens to the child artist after he/she disappears from the silver screen....for that matter what happens to any artist who is famous for a while and then lost in obscurity. The movie jumps between past and present, reel and real, black and white, slowly unravelling the life of the protagonist on three parallel lines: Ray's Apu, Subir's youth and his present.

Kaushik Ganguly beautifully captures the anguish of Subir Banerjee, the one who has been forgotten and has been cast into mediocrity. Parambrata Chatterjee, in his role as the young Subir is adept and as usual gets all the nuances right, though it is the older Subir played by Ardhendu Banerjee  who strikes a chord in our  hearts with his subdued performance of a man defiant of the world which rejected him. Parno Mitter, in the role of Ashima is just right, playing the character of child-woman perfectly, even Ritwick Chakraborty, who plays Subir's friend is understated and mature in  his portrayal. Needless to say the treatment of characters has been done beautifully, where even characters with bit roles like Subir's in laws have stayed on. The background score is poignant & haunting binding the entire three stages of the film together, the music of Indradeep Dasgupta carrying remnants of Pandit Ravi Shankar's score.

The director's intent is clear, by placing Ray's classics against his own story line he wanted to drive home the resemblance between the character of Apu and the person who played it, that is, Subir Banerjee, which he himselfs mouths as "Uncanny" in the movie. But this is where the movie falters, by placing his scene with Ray's classics Ganguly, instead of projecting the stark resemblance, at times without intent, undermines  his own work. For example, the scene where Parambrata is told the news of his baby's death, we find Ray's classic being played where Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee) hears the news of his wife's death, now this creates a damper on the original scene cause before Ray's handiwork Ganguly's pales in comparison...and instead of empathising with Parambrata you are reminded of the brilliant portrayal of pain by Soumitra Chatterjee in Apur Sansar, so much so that reel becomes more intense, invokes more pathos, just in that once glimpse. 

But, that definitely does not take away from the intent of the film, which is pure and quite original. If we let go of  comparisons, we find that Ganguly has given us a good film, something which is interesting to watch, not too preachy and yet delivers a message. In the end we do find a kinship with Subir Banerjee, our beloved  Apu of yonder years, and that's the power of good storytelling.

So in case you are a Bengali do catch this movie in your nearest theatre and in case you are not, well the movie is playing with subtitles as well, its definitely worth a watch.