The debut feature of Indian auteur Satjayit Ray, Pather Panchali is regarded as one of the greatest films in world cinema.
Three years in the making due to budgetary constraints, the 1955 film, adapted from the semi-autobiographical novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, features non-professional actors in its exploration of a small rural family living in penury in West Bengal. Having returned to the ancestral home – a small compound on the edge of the village – the family eke out survival on the scant earnings of the father as a priest and writer.
Focussing primarily on the two children of the family – Apu and his elder sister, Durga – Pather Panchali is achingly beautiful in its deeply-felt humanity and honest realism. Shot in high-contrast black and white with a soundtrack provided by the then little-known Ravi Shankar, the film mirrors its Italian Neorealist contemporaries as it looks to the everyday universal struggles of life, death and tragedy.
Rating: 90%
Director: Satjayit Ray (Aparajito, Seemabaddha)
Writer: Satjayit Ray (Aparajito, Seemabaddha) – adapted from the novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
Main cast: Subir Banerjee, Uma Das Gupta, Karuna Bannerjee (Aparajito,Shubha Bibaha)
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