Pather Panchali (1955) is widely acknowledged as one of the finest films ever made. It was the debut film of Satyajit Ray, India's greatest director, and still stands today as his most well known work internationally, despite being made over half a century ago.
Social Realism in Indian Films
Pather Panchali is a black and white film, set in rural Bengal during the 1920s. The film is quite Western in approach, with Ray avoiding the use of song and dance to tell the story, and focusing instead on realism. This gave the film an immediate accessibility to audiences outside of India, and the more people who saw the picture, the more people fell in love with it. The film has an enchanting quality, enhanced by the natural settings and the simplicity of the story. Ray tells his tale with pictures, not words, so to a certain extent, language barriers are moot. Yet Pather Panchali is still true to the spirit of India. The film is not trying to be modern or Westernised in its techniques (which was not even possible with budget and the old camera Ray had to work with), just honest to the story.
Motifs Common to Indian Films
Recurring motifs common to Indian films, and life, are strong in Pather Panchali. The depiction of poverty, the father too scared to ask for wages he is owed, the strong female matriach left alone to fend for her family whilst her husband tries to find work – all these are Indian film conventions. But Pather Panchali chooses to examine them realistically. The camera is used as a passive observer to capture life and all its intricate hopes, fears, joys and sorrows. That's not to say the cinematography isn't stunning, it is, but the camera does not intrude. The film works hard to maintain a suspension of disbelief, that these are real people, living very real lives.
The Relationship Between Apu and Durga
The films in Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy all centre around the title character, Apu. In Pather Panchali, Apu (Subir Bannerjee) is still a young boy, who plays happily with his older sister Durga (Uma Das Gupta). Their relationship is at the root of the drama, elevating scenes such as their journey to catch a glimpse of a train thundering by, into something quite beautiful and poetic. Apu's love for his sister is reflected in tiny moments of poignancy throughout the film, and especially at the end, when his unspoken gestures underline a bond between them like no other.
The Beauty's in the Human Story
Pather Panchali is known in international translation as Song of the Little Road, and indeed it does employ the use of music throughout by the brilliant and famous (although he wasn't at the time) Indian musician Ravi Shankur. The music is atmospheric but unobtrusive, fitting in perfectly with the rest of the film. Like Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves, which Ray acknowledged as an influence, the focus of the film is the humanistic story. Everything else, the music, the lighting, the background, all just play into the believability of the whole picture. Undoubtedly, Ray got it right. On its release Pather Panchali was lauded at Cannes, and it continues to enthrall viewers right up to the present day. Who'd have thought the story of a poor family's struggle to survive in Bengal could endure for so long and impart such a lasting effect of beauty?
Until recently, Pather Panchali was impossible to buy on dvd, but now a couple of versions exist. The best copy is probably included on the Artificial Eye release of The Apu Trilogy. At least this version is taken from a good quality, if not pristine, print of the film. It's hard to track down better copies, as Satyajit Ray was notoriously laissez faire regarding the preservation of his films. But still, when it comes to Pather Panchali, a scratchy copy is better than no copy at all.
- Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road)
- Directed by: Satyajit Ray
- Written by: Satyajit Ray and Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
- Starring: Subir Bannerjee, Uma Das Gupta,
- Released: 1955
- Language: Bengali
- Running time: 115 minutes
Further reading: 5 Greatest Classic Foreign Films
