Customer Reviews

The Apu Trilogy: 50th Anniversary Edition

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This book contains the scripts of Satyajit Ray's epoch-making movies "Pather Panchali(The song of the Road)" and the "Aparajito(The Unvanquished)".

Ray wrote the first draft of Pather Panchali on a ship bound to London in 1950.The questions like whether one needs a dialogue at all where the camera and the moves of the actors can say it all have always bugged Ray.One can see the reflections of his approach of script writing in this book keeping these questions in mind.

The dialogues in Ray's films have always been very appropriate and brief but very meaningful.More so,in these first two films of his when he loved to speak with his camera rather than with words.

Take a look at Ray's way of portraying complicated subjects with the exchange of superficially simple dialogues.

I would prefer to see - in the US - properly mastered DVD releases of the "Apu" trilogy. But this first publication of Satyajit Ray's screenplays for the classic trio of films is an extraordinary and valuable resource both for film scholars and fans.

Well-illustrated with stills, work prints and hand-drawn illustrations - Ray was once a commercial illustrator, and extensively detailed his own films in pre-production - this printed APU trilogy is meticulous in its' presentation; Ray would have approved.

An added bonus is the full text - again with illustrations - of filmmaker Shyam Benegal's (an admirer of Ray, and a one-time student of Ray's filmmaking colleague Ritwik Ghatak) lengthy interview with Ray. A great many detailed insights into the trilogy and later Ray films can be gleaned from this, with everything from cultural references and historical detail to autobiographical elements all thoroughly examined.

An excellent volume.

-David Alston