Review of Aparajito (1956) by Kevin M — 29 Jan 2009

Some of you might not have cared for the lackadaisical pace of "Pather Penchali", so the Roy family's sojurn into city slum life will come across as a much tighter film. While there's a lot of storytelling done in a short time, this comes at the expense of depth and humor. We're fully in in the clutches of One Damned Thing After Another. If you thought the ending of "Penchali" was bleak, get a load of the suffering that goes on in "Aparajito" (The Unvanquished).

Karuna Bannerjee, as the eternally grieving mother, has one of the most disparaging character arcs committed to page or screen. As fate's fickle finger gives her a once, twice, and thrice-over, she becomes more and more wraithlike, with bags appearing under her eyes as they lose what spark of life they once had. And that's before Teenage Apu demands to go to college in Calcutta.

Slum life is no good, rural life's no good either, and Mom's tough love don't cut it like it used to. She must struggle between her need for nurturing as she regresses into old age, and her need for improving her son's life. Even as Apu blows her off and sleeps through his days, she channels the love for her entire family into this ungrateful spawn of hers.

Would it be redundant to say that "Aparajito" is one of the most depressing movies ever? Even Ravi Shankar can't come up with any mood lightening music; most of the score consists of wailing violins (brilliantly used to represent grief in "Panchali") and turgid durges.

Still, Ray's direction is flawless, and at the very least, there is more wildlife seen here than in anything outside of a National Geographic documentary. Worth seeing just for the monkey feeding scene. Word of warning: Region 1 DVD contains terrible burned-in subtitles that bleed into anything white. Though no fault of Ray, it's still worth deducting a half star since some dialogue is unintelligible unless you happen to speak Bengalese.