Many films would have exploited the moment for a Hollywood sort of feel; but the film quickly moves on, and Apu returns to his life at school and work in Calcutta. Later, he again is to return home, but when finally on his way home he learns his mother is dead — but only after calling out for her with no answer. She had hidden her ills from him. It is never detailed what she died from, but in ye olden days it would have been called melancholia; in one scene we see her almost drowning in the ennui and gossip that surrounds her life. Her death, like her husband’s, is wonderfully noted in the physical world by a scene with animals — in this case fireflies whose lights dim, one by one, until the screen is black, and Sarbajya is dead.
One of the older servants asks if Apu will stay on, in his mother’s place, but he says no, and packs up the next day and leaves. There, the film ends rather abruptly, with Apu rejecting the silly religious ideas of death rituals that so enthralled his father. In this way, we see his connection to his mother; not as she was at death, but earlier, in the first film, when she barely tolerated her husband’s fealty to his beliefs. Apu, perhaps because he is male, is allowed to fully reject such nonsense in his culture. Again, Ray seems to be leveling a devastating critique of the religion his own country practices.
Like its predecessor, Aparajito was lauded in film festivals around the world, winning the Golden Lion at the 1957 Venice Film Festival, among many other awards. The Region 2 DVD, put out by Artificial Eye, contains all three films, and will only play on Region 2 or code free DVD players. The film is shown in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The second disk, with Aparajto on it, has no audio commentary, and has a brief selection from a BBC television show called Omnibus, an episode called "The Cinema Of Satyajit Ray." There are storyboards, still photos, production notes, and a biography and filmography of Ray.
The actual print used in the DVD transfer varies from reel to reel. Some are almost perfect, while other have major wear and damage to both the sound and visuals, including flecks and blanching, as well as some really bad sound quality, which sounds like the thump of a drum. The white subtitles, on the black and white background, also are a distraction. Gold should be used for all black and white films, especially if no English language dubbing is used. As with the Pather Panchali disk, there are a number of instances of missing letters from words, mostly Is and Ns.
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