3 Review(s)

The Apu Trilogy: Satyajit Ray And The Making Of An Epic takes an in-depth look into the making of Pather Panchali, Aparajito, and Apur Sansar. A page turner, this book is an enjoyable and informative read. Summary Of The Book The Apu Trilogy: Satyajit Ray And The Making Of An Epic, published in 2011, traces Satyajit Ray’s journey while making the three movies that comprise the trilogy. Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1959) revolve around a young bengali boy named Apu. This collection of films is said to be one of the greatest achievements of Indian cinema. The Apu Trilogy: Satyajit Ray And The Making Of An Epic looks into Ray’s formative years, and how he decided to adapt the novels of Pather Panchali and Aparajito onto the big screen. Making the Apu Trilogy was an epic in terms of production. Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) was Ray’s directorial debut. With an inexperienced crew, and amateur artists, and a very small budget, he made a movie that would influence people all across the world. Pather Panchali is set in rural Bengali, and shows the life of Apu who belongs to a high caste family that is poverty stricken. Aparajito (The Unvanquished), winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, shows the struggles between Apu’s ambitions and his mother’s love. The last movie of the trilogy is Apur Sansar (The World of Apu). Here the protagonist tries his hand at becoming a writer. One section of the book has an epilogue where Ray talks about the Apu Trilogy. The Apu Trilogy: Satyajit Ray And The Making Of An Epic is one of the first full study of this collection of films. It also focuses on Ray’s experiences while working with Ravi Shankar, who gave the music to the trilogy. Established as a classic of world cinema, these movies played a significant role in Satyajit Ray being awarded the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1992. Andrew Robinson also shows how the Apu Trilogy went from Calcutta to Cannes, from the east to the west, and became critically acclaimed. Beautifully written, and well-researched, this book focuses on the cultural and literary backgrounds of the films. The Apu Trilogy: Satyajit Ray And The Making Of An Epic will be hard to put down for any movie buff. About Andrew Robinson Andrew Robinson, born in 1957, is a British author. He has authored about twenty books, some of which are Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema, Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Great Undeciphered Scripts, The Art of Rabindranath Tagore, and Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye. He has also written many articles for various newspapers and science journals. Robinson was a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge. He is a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, and has also won many research grants from institutions like the John Templeton Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, and the British Academy. From 1994 to 2006, he was the Literary Editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement. He first visited India in 1975, and since then has been devoted to it. He lives in London, and is now a full-time writer.