The images in Pather Panchali (1955) directed by Satyajit Ray, have a quality like classic silent cinema – there’s something so luminescent and glowing about them, helped by the remastering and restoration of the film in 2015. A beautiful and quietly devastating movie, it focuses on a family living in rural Bengal during 1910. The father, Harihar (Kanu Banerjee), is a priest but dreams of being a writer and goes off on trips to sell his services, while the mother, Sarbajaya (Karuna Banerjee), worries about money, how she will feed her children, repair the dilapidated house, pay back debts. All the while, young Apu (Subir Banerjee) runs around and plays, taking everything in, alongside his oldest sister, Durga (Uma Dasgupta), who steals fruit for their cheeky Auntie (Chunibala Devi). Observational in its narrative and beholden to the neo-realist movement (Ray was inspired to become a filmmaker after having seen Bicycle Thieves, is what I’ve read), there are so many great moments and images; the montage of Apu when we are first introduced to him as a boy, the close up on his face hearing about the train in the distance, the stillness of nature before an incoming rain storm, etc. The use of silence, pulling Ravi Shankar’s wonderful sitar score at key moments, had such impact. I wasn’t sure what to expect aside from the high acclaim that Pather Panchali has received in film studies and the history of cinema; it was a very wonderful and ultimately moving viewing experience (available to stream on Kanopy). I look forward to seeing the other two films in the Apu trilogy – if anyone else is a fan of Ray’s films, please let me know any other titles to see. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 