Aparajito : The Undefeated storytelling of making of a masterpiece.

It has been a very long time that I have seen a Bengali movie in a big screen and "Aparajito"(the Undefeated) is  such a movie that will touch every cinephile who is familiar with the legendary Satyajit Ray.  It is one of those rare experiences where tears are meant to make you feel proud.  Anik Dutta with the whole cast and crew has nailed the coffin and made us revisit the concept of neorealism which is sadly still not relevant in the Indian celluloid.

Like David Fincher's Mank which revolves around the making of Citizen Kane, Aparajito revolves around the making of Pather Padabali (the Ballad of the Road)  by director Aparajito Ray (Jeetu Kamal).  Being heavily inspired from the incidents of the Satyajit's Ray road to making "Pather Panchali" (Song of the Little Road, first film of the series of "The Apu Trilogy") , it meticulously follows Aparajito's struggles and his journey of changing the cinematic culture of India in 60's and 70's.  Indian cinema in those times (and also even in modern times) is known for its classical hero-heroine romance and action oriented scripts and it is meant for people to "escape from sufferings of reality". Ray wanted to change this field of view and this made him start the Film Society and consequently his journey to England where he wanted to learn storyboard writing.  The influence of the "Bicycle Rider" (Vittorio De Silca's Bicycle Thieves) struck him a lot and made him realize that the concept of neorealism ( i.e. stories set in working class of people) has already taken place in European Cinema.  All of these experiences along with his support from his office, his family and friends cumulated to a tiring journey of his journey into film making. 

One can write novels on discussing what a great masterpiece "Pather Panchali" is. The film just captures real emotions from non-professional actors. "Aparajito" explores  behind the scenes making of this masterpiece starting from the getting rejected by producers and landing up to getting funded by Government of West Bengal, to ending with discussions on how to get a perfect reflected shot of a dog chasing two children across a pond.  Camera angles and positions, lightning issues, emotion capture, outdoor shooting, set designing, music direction are some of the few aspects that have been thoroughly highlighted in this which just shall enlighten any cinephile. These reasons made Pather Panchali to get a standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival. 

Jeetu Kamal has just nailed the character of Ray. The gestures, the voice are on point along with the makeup done by Somnath Kundu.  The rest of cast have done their role perfectly on what they were intended to do. The black and white touch just emphasized the tone of the film from the very first shot of radio being turned on. 

The last scene of the movie where Aparajito receives a call from New York about a film student  praising his cinema and revealing himself to be Martin Scorcese just elevated the emotions to a whole new level. Scorcese's Wolf of Wall Street and Shutter Island were my first introduction to Hollywood movies and hearing such a legend complimenting another legend just elevated made me feel proud as a Bengali. I left the hall with tears of joy.

If you haven't seen any movies of Satyajit Ray, I recommend you to watch "Pather Panchali" and the whole Apu Trilogy.  "Aparajito" is undoubtedly breathtakingly done and Anik's direction just made us time traveled to those golden days of Indian cinema that we had. To end the review, here is a quote by  director Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon and Seven Samurai) on  Satyajit Ray :

“People are born, live out their lives, and then accept their deaths. Without the least effort and without any sudden jerks, Ray paints his picture, but its effect on the audience is to stir up deep passions. How does he achieve this? There is nothing irrelevant or haphazard in his cinematographic technique. In that lies the secret of its excellence,”