Apur Panchali from "Pather Panchali" in its narrative. The film follows the journey of Subir Banerjee the child actor who portrayed "Apu" of Satyajit Ray's masterpiece "Pather Panchali". The events take place in two time periods. While the present day events are shot in color the past events are in black and white. Parallels are drawn between Subir's life and the Apu trilogy throughout the film. The film opens with a film school student Arka (Gaurav Chakrabarty) who comes to deliver a letter, an invite to attend a prestigious award ceremony in Germany to an older Subir Banerjee (Ardhendu Banerjee). Now retired,
Aparajito films admired by him; this list quoted him as having affirmed the jury's choice as "ABSOLUTELY right" (though he misidentified the winning film as "Pather Panchali"). Emanuel Levy said: "Made in 1956 (and released in many countries a year later), 'Aparajito' indicates India’s processes of modernization and industrialization and their inevitable impact on both individual and culture. Nonetheless, in his upbeat outlook, Ray suggests that individuals can rise to the occasion and might not be compromised by the corruption that characterizes the society at large." Bosley Crowther, who had earlier given a lukewarm response to "Pather Panchali", saying that the