LAUSR

‘In accepting the child, he [Apu] has accepted life ... Whether or not he is going back to become a great novelist is immaterial: he is going back to live’ (p. 125). Wood’s account of the trilogy’s scene reminds readers of Ray’s ‘visual poetry’ that Lippe references in the Preface. Satyajit Ray is celebrated as India’s first internationally acclaimed director, even though his films were rooted in the stories and mythologies, characters and places he knew in Bengal. He made Pather Panchali at a time when India contemplated the creation of a national cinema, yet Ray—the one film-maker we associate most with Indian cinema – was far more famous and celebrated outside his homeland than within. His style – simple linear narratives, a devotion to realism and everyday truths, and his depiction of the fragility of familial relationships – is both literary and innovative, and is a revelation to audiences familiar only with the brashness of Bollywood. Ray could not ask for a better student of his work than Robin Wood whose prose matches and reflects the director’s art. The Apu Trilogy is essential reading for anyone who is interested in Indian, and specifically Bengali cinema. It is a tribute to one of the most original auteurs in global cinema; but is also a tribute to Robin Wood, one of cinema’s most renowned critics.