Thursday, September 18, 2014

Hurray for Ray!

Have often heard 'screenplay' is the spine of a film. Can't agree more, considering what this particular scene did to me as an audience...

Ray's Pather Panchali  is the first of the Apu Trilogy  and tells the story of Ganga and her younger brother Apu set in a remote village. Ganga, unschooled, given to innocent loot and lazy rambles around the neighbourhood, has all the time in the world to indulge in aimless pursuits through the vacant hours. In a particular scene, we see Ganga walking through a field of tall grass, boredom writ large on her face with Apu (donning a crown made of cardboard) for company. There is a dull buzz as that of a drone one hears in the background as Durga listens intently, walks ahead with a sense of purpose and puts her ear to the electric pole with high tension wires above. Apu follows suit and suddenly finds he has lost sight of his sister and runs across the field shouting her name.Just as he finds her, he hears the whistle of a train and wonders aloud,'What's that?'. Next we see the two running to catch a close look at the train billowing smoke and going chiku bukku chiku bukku...As the train runs across  the screen ,we see the children in the background beside the track , through the gaps between its giant wheels.

The story might have just said 'Ganga is a simple village girl, poor, with no exposure whatsoever to even the simplest of pleasures...". Then how do you make the audience 'feel' the innocence, the burden of the vacant hours...?. It's a masterly scene that visually creates the mood for the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-JWZDALouI 

I for one, strained my ears even as Ganga raises her head to the electric cables running above and 'heard' what she heard ..and as they run towards the tracks, did Ray know, decades later a ripe 50 year old will be breathless in wonder, watching the engine chug along...?

PS: Wikipedia confirms my guess- that the train scene did not feature in the original story by Bhibutibhushan Bhandopadhyay.

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