Apur Panchali

Filmmakers Anik Datta, Kamaleswar Mukherjee and Kaushik Ganguly got together in Shree Venkatesh Films’ south Calcutta office recently to talk about Ganguly’s film Apur Panchali...

Anik: I found the structure of the film quite interesting… the way you have juxtaposed archival footage from the Apu Trilogy with Subir Banerjee’s story, combining present time with flashbacks. The transitions were seamless. Structurally, did you have everything in mind before shooting the film?

Kaushik: I wrote everything before the shoot…

Anik: Also, you have been very restrained…. In fact, I started wondering whether the film requires more dramatic events in the second half, but then finally that economy has worked. It has almost a documentary-like feel. Is it more like cinema verite?

Kamaleswar: Yes, mostly because to me the subtlety was an important issue. Was it necessary for the pacing of the film or to make the acting effortless?

Kaushik: I like effortless acting. I am almost biased towards that. Plus, there was a mental pressure since we were using archival footage from the Apu Trilogy. I made sure that there was no excess.

Kamaleswar: The film is successful in every department.

Anik: Usually, when I see a film for the first time, I react emotionally. Then maybe something cerebral happens at the subliminal level. I was very emotionally moved with this film, and yet it wasn’t soppy.

Kamaleswar: And what is also interesting is the way the narrative moves in three layers. Did you think of motifs like Parambrata (Chattopadhyay, who plays Subir Banerjee) walking off into the distance with a boatman rowing by, or did you develop it during shooting?

Kaushik: Everything was planned out. However, the boatman was taking the boat through the middle of the river, which was not going with my scene.

Anik: He was following his grammar! Why would he break that?!

Kaushik: Then I had to make him understand to take the boat by the riverbank. It took a while, but finally he did it (grins).

Anik: In the documentary Ray, Shyam Benegal had also used archival footage from the Apu Trilogy to depict Satyajit Ray’s early years. He used Ray Roman (font) in the credits… did you think of that?

Kaushik: Yes, I could have done that… I missed it actually. It would have been great if we had used it. And Ray Roman is a favourite, it looks so smart on screen.

Kamaleswar: Why did you think of making a film revolving around a child actor?

Kaushik: There’s actually a child actor in our family. Captain Spark is a member of our family (Jit Bose played the character in Satyajit Ray’s Joi Baba Felunath). Jit is the husband of Churni’s sister. I know him for close to 20 years. And he has only acted in that one film. He works in a hotel in Bangalore. He is in a different profession altogether, and not associated with films. And it’s not that he has a great bonding with cinema. Then I got to know about Subir Banerjee from Sirsha Ray (cinematographer of Apur Panchali).

Anik: Kaushik has this detective-like or investigative journalist-like approach (to cinema). He has a fertile imagination, and he can find the germ of a story anywhere, create a story and then make a script out of it. He has a fantastic ability to not only identify the possible germ of a story but to develop it into a full-fledged script.

Kaushik: More than making the film, I get a kick out of developing a story. I like to tell different kinds of stories. Whatever we have shown in the film about Subir Banerjee’s life is all true. Which is why I wanted to make the film. It’s so uncanny! How can this be? (Subir’s life, curiously enough, is similar to Apu’s.) Subirbabu has told me that three things — kaash phool, electric pole and trains — still bother him. He has no other association. Recently he called me up and asked me about the box-office status of the movie. “Are they watching the film? What are they saying?” he asked. And not only that. He has written a script, around five-six pages long.

Anik: Did he come for the premiere?

Kaushik: No, he doesn’t like crowded places. And I didn’t want to pressurise him for another reason… if the real Subir would have been present at the premiere, my Subir would have suffered. It helped to maintain the illusion.

Anik: Did you decide to make the film when you got the archival footage?

Kaushik: No, I had made up my mind from the beginning that I would get the footage. When I told Sandip Ray about this, he was very supportive, and he said, ‘It’s great. You are celebrating this.’

Kamaleswar: Why did you decide to use the archival footage and not recreate it?

Kaushik: Some things cannot be re-shot. The footage was available, and then there was the nostalgia associated with watching Apu on screen.

Anik: Did Subirbabu actually receive the award mentioned in the film?

Kaushik: Yes, and he didn’t bring it back since it was heavy. And he didn’t inform anyone. He got the world’s most celebrated child actor award (in Germany).

Anik: For someone who has been in a shooting, why did Subirbabu (Param) walk into a shooting zone? Was he so excited that he forgot that a shoot was on?

Kaushik: He has no memory of the Pather Panchali shoot.

Kamaleswar: Everyone has acted really well. You have also made use of actors who are not so famous. How did you find them?

Kaushik: Since I’ve done television for many years, I’m in touch with many actors. It’s not like all are working on a regular basis. But I remember their names. And if we decide that we won’t take known faces, then the scope to cast many more people gets higher. For example, Arun Guha Thakurta, a director-cum-associate director, has been acting well in every film. He played Ritwick Chakraborty’s father in Shabdo, and he only had a few lines. And he’s such a great actor.

Kaushik Ganguly, Anik Datta and Kamaleswar Mukherjee. Picture: Rashbehari Das

t2: Is there anything that you missed or could have done differently?

Kaushik: There was something in the script, but I don’t know why I missed it during shooting. [Mentions the scene where Param is having dinner with his screen wife Ashima (Parno Mittra) in the evening] There was a moment when Param does a pranam hearing the blowing of a conch shell. I had written it but forgot to shoot it, and whenever I see the scene there’s a feeling of discomfort....

Anik: As Apu is growing up, you have shown the socio-political landscape changing. We see comrades of the first Left Front government marching through the streets. In fact, he was approached by a Naxalite. But then after a point you abandoned it.

Kaushik: Because by then those things were not relevant to him. And in 1977 we see a new government is born and there is a death of a child. And he (Subir) is unmoved as the celebratory procession passes him.

Anik: And do you have a kind of Hitchcockian superstition that you must make an appearance in your films? (Grins)

Kaushik: No, it’s not about a superstition. I like doing it, and it was important to speak the Bangal language correctly (Kaushik plays Param’s colleague).

Just heard

Shaheb Bhattacherjee has recently shot for a national ad film with Bollywood director Imtiaz Ali. The hush-hush shoot for the Parle Marie commercial happened in Calcutta last month. Shaheb is reportedly excited to have picked up acting tips from Imtiaz while being directed by the Highway-maker. And Highway sure came up for discussion!