Pather Panchali
A moving and poetic portrait of acclaimed filmmaker Satyajit Ray, in which rural Bengali life, poverty, wonder, humor, and the little things that make life beautiful all come together.
With his style—as lyrical as it is documentary—the celebrated director Satyajit Ray portrays rural Bengali life, offering an alternative to traditional Bollywood cinema. Pather Panchali is the first installment of the so-called Apu trilogy, in which Ray illuminates everyday life at the bottom of Indian society through three stages of the title character’s life. In this first installment, Apu’s father tries to improve his family’s living conditions by seeking work in the city. In his absence, things only get worse for those left behind, but fortunately, Ray’s cinematic palette isn’t limited to gloom. Amid all the tragedy, there is also room for poetry and humor.
While Harihar is away earning money, the family slowly falls into decline. Their lives, however, are not all misery. The children discover the world around them with a curious, open mind and find joy in the simple things in life, such as watching folk theater, running through overgrown fields, or seeing a train pass by for the first time. Pather Panchali was awarded the Best Human Document Award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.
Satyajit Ray (1921–1992) is without a doubt one of India’s greatest filmmakers. Akira Kurosawa compared not having seen his films to “being in the world without ever having seen the sun or the moon.” Contemporary filmmakers such as Wes Anderson and Christopher Nolan are also among the admirers of his work.
