Indian actor
Subir Banerjee
is an Indian
actor
who played
Apu
in
Satyajit Ray
's Bengali film
Pather Panchali
(lit.
Song of the Little Road
, 1955),
[1]
the first installment of
The Apu Trilogy
.
Pather Panchali
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]
During the pre-production of
Pather Panchali
, Satyajit Ray advertised in newspapers seeking boys between five and seven years of age for the role of Apu.
[1]
Several boys arrived for audition, but none of them met the expectation of the director. Finally, Ray's wife
Bijoya Ray
spotted a boy playing on the roof of a neighbouring building of their apartment. This boy, Subir Banerjee, was eventually cast for the role of Apu.
[1]
Banerjee stayed at Lake Avenue in Kolkata, and later recounted his father's reluctance in allowing him take up the role. That is when Ray said, "Today, no one knows your son or me. But I'll make a film that will change Bengali cinema. Then, all of Bengal will know both of us." This convinced his father, thereafter the shooting continued from 1952 to 1954, with a year's break in between.
[2]
Andrew Robinson
, in his book
Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye
, describes that at the beginning of the shooting of
Pather Panchali
in 1952, Subir Banerjee was a "decidedly unresponsive actor".
[3]
The first scene that the crew shot was a scene involving Apu and his elder sister Durga, played by another young actor Uma Dasgupta, walking through a field of
kash
(
Saccharum spontaneum
) and catching a glimpse of a train. The scene required that Apu walk haltingly, looking for his sister, who had gone ahead. However, Banerjee, without any acting experience, could not enact the halting walk. So the crew had to improvise and place small obstacles in Banerjee's path; also some crew members hid in different parts of the
kash
field and called Banerjee at pre-arranged times so that Banerjee looks in those directions at times, thereby giving his walk a halting and searching appearance.
[3]
The film had interrupted shooting schedules due to funding problems. One long break spanned eight months. Satyajit Ray became nervous, among other things, that the voice of Banerjee, a growing young boy, would
break
, thereby causing a problem in the continuity of the film. However, this did not happen.
[4]
Later life
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Banerjee did not appear in any film after
Pather Panchali
.
[5]
He disappeared from the public eye.
India Today
, a magazine, tracked him down and published his details in an article, "Pather Panchali: An Odyssey Revisited", in March 1980.
[5]
At that time, he worked as a millhand in a factory in the suburbs of
Kolkata
.
[5]
According to a report in
NDTV
, Banerjee became a clerk at a
central government
office, and later took voluntary retirement.
[6]
He is, as of December 2012, 69 years old and "completely detached" from films.
[6]
In popular culture
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]
Apur Panchali
(2013) is a Bengali film based on Banerjee's life.
[6]
[7]
Director
Kaushik Ganguly
won the award for best director for
Apur Panchali
in the 44th
International Film Festival of India
(IFFI) in November 2013.
[8]
The director mentioned in an interview that he found similarities between certain parts of the life of Subir Banerjee and the iconic character Apu.
[6]
In the film, actor
Parambrata Chatterjee
portrays a younger Subir Banerjee, while
Ardhendu Bannerjee
plays the role of the aged Banerjee.
[9]
References
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External links
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]