Revision as of 17:48, 28 June 2013

Pather Panchali (Song of the Road)

Iconic Indian film in Bengali/ 1955/ dir: Satyajit Ray

Credits

UC Santa Cruz Year 1955

Producer Govt. of West Bengal

Distributor Govt. of West Bengal (NFDC, Mumbai for overseas distribution)

Screenplay Satyajit Ray

Based on The novel Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Banerjee

Photography Subrata Mitra

Editor Dulal Dutta

Art Director Bansi Chandragupta

Music Ravi Shankar

Sound Bhupen Ghosh

Length 115 min.

Print Black & White

Cast

Harihar Kanu Bannerjee

Sarbajaya Karuna Bannerjee

Apu Subir Bannerjee

Durga Uma Das Gupta/Runki Bannerjee

Schoolmaster Tulsi Chakravarty

Mrs. Nilmoni Aparna Devi

Indir Chunibala Dev

Rich Neighbor-Woman RajLaksmi Devi

The story

The story revolves around a poor Brahmin family in early years of the century in Bengal. The father, Harihara, is a priest who is unable to make ends meet to keep his family together. The mother, Sarbajaya, has the chief responsibility for raising her mischievous daughter Durga and caring for her elderly aunt Indir, who is a distant relative and whose independent spirit sometimes irritates her. With the arrival of Apu in the family, scenes of happiness and play enrich their daily life. Life, however, is a struggle, so Harihara has to find a new job and departs, leaving Sarbajaya alone to deal with the stress of this family's survival, Durga's illness and the turbulence of the monsoon. The final disaster, Durga's death, causes the family to leave their village in search of a new life in Benares. In spite of poverty and death the film leaves one not depressed but moved, filled with the beauty, and subtle radiance of life. The film suggests an intimate relationship between loss and growth or destruction and creation.

A backgrounder

Ray's comment on this film: "It is true. For one year I was trying to sell the scenario, to peddle it... since nobody would buy it, I decided to start anyway, because we wanted some footage to prove that we were not incapable of making films. So I got some money against my insurance policies. We started shooting, and the fund ran out very soon. Then I sold some art books, some records and some of my wife's jewelry. Little trickles of money came, and part of the salary I was earning as art director. All we had to spend on was raw stock, hire of a camera and our conveniences, transport and so on... I had nothing more to pawn." The original negative of this film was lost in a fire.

Pather Panchali: No 12 best arthouse film of all time

Satyajit Ray, 1955

Stuart Jeffries

The Guardian, Wednesday 20 October 2010

The Guardian

Pather Panchali

It was the birth of a cinema, certainly the birth of a new kind of Indian cinema. On the first day of the shoot, the director had never directed, the cameraman had never shot a scene, the children in the leading roles hadn't been tested and the soundtrack was composed by a then obscure sitarist (the great Ravi Shankar). Perhaps this inexperience gave everyone involved the freedom to create something new. Certainly director Satyajit Ray and cinematographer Subrata Mitra showed a miraculous gift for lighting scenes, coaxing intimate and utterly convincing performances from children and other non-professional actors, and allowing narrative to grow seamlessly – just as happened in the best of the films by Ray's western mentor, Jean Renoir.

The plot

The story seems superficially insubstantial. A small boy, Apu (Subir Bannergee), is living with his impoverished Brahmin family in rural west Bengal. His father, a priest lost in dreams of writing plays and poetry, is so weak he won't even ask his employer for his back-pay. His mother (the marvellous Karuna Bannerjee) is mired in daily tasks – looking after Apu and his sister Durga, struggling with the demands of her ageing sister-in-law and her impractical husband.

It's a film that blindsides the viewer by showing a child's perspective on the world: it is Apu and Durga's perspective on a train passing by, their discovery of their aunt's body or their excitement at the sound of the sweet-seller's bells that captivate us jaded adults. This is the first of a trilogy in which Apu leaves childish things behind and goes into a world every bit as confounding as the one his father could not master.