Satyajit Ray with Soumitra during the shooting of ‘Joi Baba Felunath’ in Varanasi. It was released in 1979

The camera slowly zooms in on a letter — it’s a recommendation that says Apu is a “sensitive, conscientious and diligent” person. It then pans to Apu’s face: a young man with sharp features and a beatific smile that lights up a classic black-and-white frame. This was Satyajit Ray’s introduction of the debutant Soumitra Chatterjee in Apur Sansar.

He was the hero everyone wanted to adore — a sensitive, intelligent young man with the spirit of a wanderer who yearns to discover a compassionate world, gets bruised repeatedly and loses his way when he reproaches his son for having caused his wife’s death. What he never forsakes is the purity of his soul.

Chatterjee had told Ray’s biographer Marie Seton in Portrait Of A Director that he found “half of himself” in Apu. The cinematic masterpiece wasn’t just a teaser for love and loss in matrimony. Chatterjee had said “plenty of young men” who watched his debut opposite Sharmila Tagore came to him and said they would like to get married. His conviction breathed life into this shot and achingly poignant tale. Apur Sansar influenced the thought process of generations and redefined Indian cinema. It also changed the trajectory of Chatterjee’s own life. “Playing Apu gave me a chance to grow into 'Ray’s favourite actor'. That epithet itself is something any actor would covet, I also got a lifetime friend in my co-star, Sharmila Tagore,” he said.

One day, Chatterjee had gone to watch the shooting of the Chhabi Biswas starrer Jalsaghar. As he was about to leave, Ray said: “Let me introduce you to Chhabi Biswas. You haven’t met him, have you?” In his customary baritone, he said: “Chhabida, this is Soumitra Chattopadhyay. He is playing Apu in my next film, Apur Sansar.” That was how Chatterjee learnt he had bagged the role that would define him.

After reading the screenplay, Chatterjee tried to innovate with the time-lapse portions, which is the gap between shots. Adopting the Stanislavskian method, he would imagine what Apu would do and write that down. Sometimes, he would include autobiographical elements. This was his way of getting under the skin of Apu’s character. While he had the courage to share these with Ray, the master inspired him to think further.

The result showed when Apur Sansar released on May 1, 1959. It went on to win the National Award for Best Feature Film that year. As per Seton, Chatterjee felt his portrayal of Apu to be the “image of the contemporary Indian man in the process of becoming modern”.As per director Goutam Ghose, this film also stood out for the discoveries of such great performances by the lead actors.