Pather Panchali

This article is about the film. For the novel on which it is based, see Pather Panchali (novel).

Pather Panchali
Poster
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySatyajit Ray
Screenplay bySatyajit Ray
Based onPather Panchali
by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
Starring
CinematographySubrata Mitra
Edited byDulal Dutta
Music byRavi Shankar
Production
company
Distributed byAurora Film Corporation (1955)
Merchant Ivory Productions
Sony Pictures Classics (1995)[a]
Release date
  • 26 August 1955 (1955-08-26) (India)
Running time
112–126 minutes[b]
CountryIndia
LanguageBengali
Budget₹70,000–150,000[c] ($14,700–31,500)[d]
Box officeest. ₹100 million[8] ($21 million)

Pather Panchali (pronounced [pɔtʰer pãtʃali] transl. Song of the Little Road) is a 1955 Indian Bengali-language drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray in his directoral debut and produced by the Government of West Bengal. It is an adaptation of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's 1929 Bengali novel of the same name and features Subir Banerjee, Kanu Banerjee, Karuna Banerjee, Uma Dasgupta, Pinaki Sengupta and Chunibala Devi in major roles. The first film in The Apu Trilogy, Pather Panchali depicts the childhood travails of the protagonist Apu and his elder sister Durga amid the harsh village life of their poor family.

The film was shot mainly on location, had a limited budget,[c] featured mostly amateur actors, and was made by an inexperienced crew. Lack of funds led to frequent interruptions in production, which took nearly three years, but the West Bengal government pulled Ray out of debt by buying the film for the equivalent of $60,000, which it turned into a profit of $700,000 by 1980.[9] The sitar player Ravi Shankar composed the film's soundtrack and score using classical Indian ragas. Subrata Mitra was in charge of the cinematography while editing was handled by Dulal Dutta. Following its premiere on 3 May 1955 during an exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art, Pather Panchali was released in Calcutta the same year to an enthusiastic reception. A special screening was attended by the Chief Minister of West Bengal and the Prime Minister of India.

Critics have praised its realism, humanity, and soul-stirring qualities, while others have called its slow pace a drawback, and some have condemned it for romanticising poverty. Scholars have commented on the film's lyrical quality and realism (influenced by Italian neorealism), its portrayal of the poverty and small delights of daily life, and the use of what the author Darius Cooper has termed the "epiphany of wonder", among other themes.

The tale of Apu's life is continued in the two subsequent installments of Ray's trilogy: Aparajito (The Unvanquished, 1956) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959). Pather Panchali is described as a turning point in Indian cinema, as it was among the films that pioneered the Parallel cinema movement, which espoused authenticity and social realism. The first film from independent India to attract major international critical attention, it won India's National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 1955, the Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, and several other awards, establishing Ray as one of the country's most distinguished filmmakers. It is often featured in lists of the greatest films ever made.

  1. ^ Sengoopta, Chandak (16 November 2009). "Apu-In-The-Word". Outlook. p. 2/5. Archived from the original on 24 April 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference dvdbeaver was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Pather Panchali". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  4. ^ Jeffries, Stuart (19 October 2010). "Pather Panchali: No 12 best arthouse film of all time". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference erickson nyt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Pather Panchali (1957)". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  7. ^ Antweiler, Werner (2019). "Foreign Currency Units per 1 U.S. Dollar, 1950–2018" (PDF). University of British Columbia. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 May 2015. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference gross was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Sumit MITRA (1 February 2014). "Pather Panchali: Its history, the genius behind it, and Satyajit Ray's style of working". India Today. Archived from the original on 23 July 2021. Retrieved 23 July 2021.


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