Pather Panchali
Classic neorealist Indian coming-of-age film about the life of Apu, a boy growing up in a poor rural Indian family. With his lyrical and humanistic style, Satyajit Ray offered an alternative to Bollywood.
‘To have not seen the films of Satyajit Ray is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun,’ said Japanese grandmaster Akira Kurosawa. Big words, but then PATHER PANCHALI is a big film. When Satyajit Ray began his debut film, he had no directing experience whatsoever, his cameraman had never filmed before and the (child) actors were literally plucked off the street. The score was provided by the then unknown Ravi Shankar. Money was lacking. Ray had to pawn his wife’s jewelry to finance the film. Nonetheless, PATHER PANCHALI became a classic and the first Indian film to be appreciated worldwide. The story about the little boy Apu is a universal story about the magic of childhood, love, death and the hope for a better life. Director Ray drew his inspiration not from the overly (according to Westerners) melodramatic Bollywood musicals, but from European humanism. This approach, combined with a touch of Indian mysticism, makes this picture-perfect film irresistible, even some seventy years after its release. (mv)