4 min readDec 13, 2013 02:19 AM IST
Of all the lores attached to Satyajit Ray’s iconic 1954 Bengali film,Pather Panchali,the one that is most quaint is the one that involves the casting of the protagonist,Apu. Apparently,Ray scouted far and wide for a face that would suit the description of Apu in the Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay novel on which the film is based on,but couldn’t find any 8-year-old who fitted the description. It was Bijoya,Ray’s wife,who came to the rescue,pointing out their neighbour’s son to him. Thus,the one-film-old career of Subir Banerjee was born. A career that would,in many countries,make him the face of Indian cinema.
Almost 60 years later,filmmaker Kaushik Ganguly retraces the life of the actor who faded into anonymity soon after the release of the film. Apur Panchali is Ganguly’s tribute to cinema and its accidental victims. “I wanted to talk about those faces that fade into oblivion. How does it feel to be a part of something so big and beautiful and to then lead an extremely ordinary life?” asks Ganguly.
A few years ago,one of Ganguly’s assistants attended a wedding and mentioned his chance encounter with a long-forgotten child actor to Ganguly. “His meeting with Subir Banerjee was entirely incidental,but for me it was something more. It was serendipitous. I wanted to know more about the person. I was fascinated with his life,” says Ganguly,who earlier explored the life of Bengali theatre thespian Chapal Bhaduri through Aarekti Premer Golpo (Just Another Love Story) in 2010.
But Ganguly’s attempt to forge a friendship with Banerjee was repeatedly thwarted. “He had very little interest in talking about his life. He would not take my calls and just ignored me,” says Ganguly. But his perseverance paid off and Ganguly broke the ice,thanks to some judicious homework. “I found out from his near and dear ones that Banerjee likes old Bengali songs. My father was a singer from that era and when I told him that,he warmed up to me,” says Ganguly.
As he interacted with Banerjee,Ganguly realised that the former child actor’s life mirrored the life of his screen character. “He had to go through the same struggles that Apu had to go through in Apu trilogy,” says Ganguly. Banerjee was also frustrated with the burden of being Apu all his life. “For him,the Apu experience was just about a few years of his life. He is not that child anymore. He is a retired employee of a private firm who has led a life away from arc lights. Yet,there is no denying that he is secretly proud of being an important part of one of the most important films of Indian cinema,” says Ganguly.
Filming Apur Panchali at the same cottage where Ray shot his debut film nearly 60 years ago was a “surrealistic experience”,says Ganguly. “That film changed my life,and when I was filming in that same ramshackle cottage,it was like we were connected by history,” says Ganguly. The film,which is expected to hit theatres next month,is already winning him laurels. It won Ganguly the best director award at the recently-concluded International Film Festival of India. “For me,this recognition is a recognition of Banerjee and his contribution to the Indian film industry too,” says Ganguly.
