I had high hopes from one of my favorite directors about this movie. Not only because this is one of the most beautifully, poetically narrated novel of the history of Bengali literature, but also of the reason that this is my personal favorite, 'Aporajito' that is from Great novelist Bhibhutibhushan. But my favorite director let me down big time.
In this movie, he built an 'Apu'which differs significantly from the original novel. In the novel, Apu is a keen student of mainly literature, wandering about and reading poetry from 'The Golden Treasury' in the school-yard. On the contrary, in the movie he is a keen student of science studying 1/u + 1/v = 1/f. I didn't like this this thing at all. Because in the later part of his life, he became a 'poet come novelist'. How can he become a 'poet come novelist' without a single reference to his liking for poetry in the whole movie? Satyajit focused on the relation between Apu and his 'a bit old fashioned' mother in a strange way. In the movie, it seems that Apu has simply stopped to pay any kind of attention to his mother which is also contrary to the original novel. Yes, he had a bit of a fight with his mother about studying in the school. His old fashioned mother didn't see the necessity of reading in a school while they are getting enough to live their life from Apu's career as a Hindu priest. But Apu badly wanted to read in a school which will give him knowledge about the outside world. At last Apu won, he did go to read in the school, but there was no lacking in love and respect for his mother in his life. He always felt his mother in the school (according to the novel), read out interesting stories to his mother when he was home from school. Overall he intended to share the joy of gathering knowledge with his poor mother who worked so hard to establish Apu. But Satyajit completely ignored these feelings on the basis of a paragraph from the novel that said Apu was relieved when his mother died. This isn't the way of portraying that paragraph. It merely reflected Apu's mind which was free as a flying bird. Now that his mother has passed away, he would be able to roam wherever he may like without any bond of family, which was a mixed feelings of slight relief and deep sorrow for the huge loss of losing his mom.
The character 'Apu' is like a myth in Bengali literature, comprises of sweetness of dream rather than bitterness of harsh reality. He gave hope back to me which I lost in the earlier part of my life. He is an icon not only to me, but also to a lot of young people of Bengal like me. Satyajit, with due respect to the great man, failed to portray this mythical 'Apu'. He portrayed his own Apu. He is entitled to his opinion, but I didn't like his rendition of Apu. I hope that a better rendition of Apu will be made in near future, which will have similarity with Bhibhutibhusan's Apu.
In this movie, he built an 'Apu'which differs significantly from the original novel. In the novel, Apu is a keen student of mainly literature, wandering about and reading poetry from 'The Golden Treasury' in the school-yard. On the contrary, in the movie he is a keen student of science studying 1/u + 1/v = 1/f. I didn't like this this thing at all. Because in the later part of his life, he became a 'poet come novelist'. How can he become a 'poet come novelist' without a single reference to his liking for poetry in the whole movie? Satyajit focused on the relation between Apu and his 'a bit old fashioned' mother in a strange way. In the movie, it seems that Apu has simply stopped to pay any kind of attention to his mother which is also contrary to the original novel. Yes, he had a bit of a fight with his mother about studying in the school. His old fashioned mother didn't see the necessity of reading in a school while they are getting enough to live their life from Apu's career as a Hindu priest. But Apu badly wanted to read in a school which will give him knowledge about the outside world. At last Apu won, he did go to read in the school, but there was no lacking in love and respect for his mother in his life. He always felt his mother in the school (according to the novel), read out interesting stories to his mother when he was home from school. Overall he intended to share the joy of gathering knowledge with his poor mother who worked so hard to establish Apu. But Satyajit completely ignored these feelings on the basis of a paragraph from the novel that said Apu was relieved when his mother died. This isn't the way of portraying that paragraph. It merely reflected Apu's mind which was free as a flying bird. Now that his mother has passed away, he would be able to roam wherever he may like without any bond of family, which was a mixed feelings of slight relief and deep sorrow for the huge loss of losing his mom.
The character 'Apu' is like a myth in Bengali literature, comprises of sweetness of dream rather than bitterness of harsh reality. He gave hope back to me which I lost in the earlier part of my life. He is an icon not only to me, but also to a lot of young people of Bengal like me. Satyajit, with due respect to the great man, failed to portray this mythical 'Apu'. He portrayed his own Apu. He is entitled to his opinion, but I didn't like his rendition of Apu. I hope that a better rendition of Apu will be made in near future, which will have similarity with Bhibhutibhusan's Apu.