by Satyajit Ray

Set in the 1910s in Bengal, this film originally known in Bengali as Pather Panchali is the first feature length film of one of India’s most acclaimed and celebrated directors: Satyajit Ray (1921-1992). The film focuses on an impoverished Brahman family in a Bengali village with the youngest member Apu being one of the central characters. It is his story that Ray focuses on in his two feature length films : Aparajito (The Unvanquished, 1956) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959) thus making this movie the first in Ray’s critically acclaimed Apu Trilogy.

The film centers around Apu and his family members including his elder sister Durga, his priest of a father who dreams of being a poet and a playwright and his mother who is often engaged in a battle with his father’s cousin who she resents for stealing their food from the kitchen while she struggles to feed her children. The film is a slice of life and one that displays the harshness of reality for a family living in dire poverty. Since Apu’s mother is often busy, taking care of the family, it is Durga who cares for him like a second mother, often teasing him and sharing the simple joys of life with him like sitting under the cool shade of a tree, viewing the mind-boggling pictures through a travelling vendor’s bioscope or watching a folk theatre performed by a troupe or even chasing and salivating at the sweets of the candy man despite their empty pockets.

The film blindsides the viewer by showing a child’s perspective of the world. Be it Apu and Durga’s fascination with all the vendors and their goods or their wealthier friend’s jewellery and beads. A soundtrack composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar which includes mainly tunes played on the sitar, transports us to the village and its peace; free from the worries of the hustling-bustling cities.

Starring mostly amateur actors and a first-time director at the helm, the film struggled in its funding but was ultimately funded by the government of Bengal, giving Ray the opportunity to finish his masterpiece. Once released, the film was an astounding critical and commercial success. Grossing 100 million through positive word of mouth, the film received accolades from various national and international organizations the most noticeable being The National Film Awards and a screening at the Cannes Film Festival. The film cemented Satyajit Ray’s career as a director and placed India on the world cinema map. It created a new genre of film-making in which authenticity and realism were the primary themes, breaking the norms of traditional Indian filmmaking. The film may not hold the test of time from a technical stand point due to its poor print quality and damage to the original negatives, but from a story telling standpoint, the film still strongly puts forward its themes of poverty and child-like wonder, that are as relevant today as they were in a film that released 66 years ago.