Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for Aparajito (1956) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Karuna Banerjee, Santi Gupta, Ranibala, Sudipta Roy, Keya Sengupta, Kamala Adhikari DIRECTOR: Satyajit Ray CINEMATOGRAPHY: Subrata Mitra MUSIC: Ravi Shankar PRODUCTION: Epic Productions, Satyajit Ray Productions

Box Office Performance

Aparajito earned $134,241 domestically and $35,974 internationally, for a worldwide total of $170,215. The film skewed heavily domestic (79%), suggesting strong North American appeal.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

Franchise: Aparajito is part of the Apu Collection.

Smaran Ghosal, who, at the age of 14, played the role of adolescent Apu, only appeared in one more film, the documentary Rabindranath Tagore (1961), also made by Ray, in which he played a young Rabindranath Tagore. Smaran died in 2008 in Kolkata, at the age of 64.

Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito, and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) (1959) together constitute The Apu Trilogy. Pather Panchali portrays the childhood of Apu in his family's ancestral house. Apur Sansar depicts Apu's adult life, his reaction to his wife's premature death, and his final bonding with his son whom he abandoned as an infant. Ray did not initially plan to make a trilogy: he decided to make the third film only after being asked about the possibility of a trilogy at the 1957 Venice Film Festival, where Aparajito won the Golden Lion. Aparajito has been called the richest film of the trilogy in terms of its characterization.

According to Michael Sragow of The Atlantic Monthly in 1994: "The youthful coming-of-age dramas that have flooded art houses since the mid-fifties owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy, which Terrence Rafferty has rightly called 'cinema's purest Bildungsroman'". Across the world, filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, James Ivory, Abbas Kiarostami, Elia Kazan, and Wes Anderson have been influenced by The Apu Trilogy, with many others (such as Kurosawa) praising the work. After Aparajito, Ray went on to make 35 more films, including feature films, documentaries, and shorts.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: Nominated for 2 BAFTA 6 wins & 2 nominations total

Awards Won: ★ Golden Lion

Additional Recognition: In 1992, Sight & Sound (the British Film Institute's film magazine) ranked The Apu Trilogy at No. 88 in its Critics' Poll of all-time greatest films, while Aparajito itself was ranked separately at No. 127 on the same list. In 2002, a combined list of Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll results included Aparajito in its top 160. In 1998, the Asian film magazine Cinemayas critics' poll of all-time greatest films ranked The Apu Trilogy at No. 7. In 1999, The Village Voice ranked The Apu Trilogy at No. 54 in its Top 250 "Best Films of the Century" list, based on a poll of critics. In 2001, film critic Roger Ebert included The Apu Trilogy in his list of "100 Great Movies" of all time. In 2005, The Apu Trilogy was included in Time's All-Time 100 Movies list.

CRITICAL RECEPTION

The film has been enthusiastically received by critics. James Berardinelli wrote:

Aparajito was filmed forty years ago, half way around the world, yet the themes and emotions embedded in the narrative are strikingly relevant to modern Western society (thus explaining why it is called a "timeless classic"). ... Aparajito is an amazing motion picture. Its rich, poetic composition is perfectly wed to the sublime emotional resonance of the narrative. For those who have seen Pather Panchali, Aparajito provides a nearly-flawless continuation of the journey begun there. Yet, for those who missed Ray's earlier effort, this film loses none of its impact. On its own or as part of the Apu Trilogy, Aparajito should not be missed.

Roger Ebert said that "the relationship between Apu and his mother observes truths that must exist in all cultures: how the parent makes sacrifices for years, only to see the child turn aside and move thoughtlessly away into adulthood. ... It is about a time, place and culture far removed from our own, and yet it connects directly and deeply with our human feelings. It is like a prayer, affirming that this is what the cinema can be, no matter how far in our cynicism we may stray".

Emanuel Levy said: "Made in 1956 (and released in many countries a year later), Aparajito indicates India's processes of modernization and industrialization and their inevitable impact on both individual and culture. Nonetheless, in his upbeat outlook, Ray suggests that individuals can rise to the occasion and might not be compromised by the corruption that characterizes the society at large". Bosley Crowther, who had earlier given a lukewarm response to Pather Panchali, saying that it was so amateurish that "it would barely pass for a rough cut in Hollywood", praised Aparajito, saying that "Mr.