The Apu Trilogy: Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

by Andrew Robinson

""I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing Pather Panchali "", noted Akira Kurosawa. Satyajit Ray's three films about the boyhood, adolescence and manhood of Apu, Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and The World of Apu (1959) - collectively known as The Apu Trilogy - are established classics of world cinema. The Trilogy was the chief reason for Satyajit Ray's receiving a Hollywood Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1992, just before his death.  This book by Ray's biographer and world authority Andrew Robinson is the first full study of the Trilogy. Robinson -- who came to know the director well during the last decade of his career -- covers the literary and cultural background to the films, their production, their music composed by Ravi Shankar, their aesthetic value, and their complex critical reception in the East and the West, from 1955 up to the present day. Extensively and beautifully illustrated and a pleasure to read, The Apu Trilogy will appeal to anyone captivated by the unique world created by Satyajit Ray.

Genres: Film

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

(William) Andrew Coulthard Robinson is a British author and former newspaper editor.

Andrew Robinson was educated at the Dragon School, Eton College where he was a King's Scholar, University College, Oxford where he read Chemistry and finally the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He is the son of Neville Robinson, an Oxford physicist.

Robinson first visited India in 1975 and has been a devotee of the country's culture ever since, in particular the Bengali poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore and the Bengali film director Satyajit Ray. He has authored many books and articles. Until 2006, he was the Literary Editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement<?em>. He has also been a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge.

He is based in London and is now a full-time writer.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Farhana · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an appreciator of Ray's work , AR focuses on the details of the trilogy as they & their maker both advanced in various aspects time to time. The book is basically about the journey of the trilogy. How they were born, how they were created, shaped , reshaped & how they sprung through the lives of a master filmmaker & its viewers, how through the courses of them Ray made himself .

[Robert Blenheim · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've never seen these three Satyajit Ray masterpieces, you are missing a great event in your life. There are many people on earth whose life has been altered by just seeing these films once. (And I've seen the trilogy many times.) They are the most human (and humanistic) films in the history of the cinema.

As far as this book, it's marvelous -- if sometimes needing more analytical details in the films. Best to pair this with Robin Wood's marvelous Apu study.

See the movies, then read this book. But even if you don't read it, see the Apu Trilogy at least once in your life. These films -- like the Symphonies of Gustav Mahler or the music dramas of Richard Wagner -- are part of the great joys in being alive.

[Sujoy Ghosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

For any cinephile, this book is a must read. The book explores the making of The Apu Trilogy while giving deep insights into the genius of Ray as a filmmaker and showcasing the Bengal of the time. The level of details are admirable given the relative conciseness of the book. The book doesn't lose the focus in the layering of cinematic and technical information in the critique and brings out the human aspect of the craft. One brilliant gem is the insights into Pandit Ravi Shankar's involvement.

Based on two novels written by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Apu Trilogy holds a special place in the history of cinema having influenced filmmakers across the world. This book is a great tribute.