*** Welcome to piglix ***

Pather Panchali

Pather Panchali
Poster
A poster of Pather Panchali
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Screenplay by Satyajit Ray
Based on Pather Panchali
by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
Starring Subir Banerjee
Kanu Banerjee
Karuna Banerjee
Uma Dasgupta
Chunibala Devi
Tulsi Chakrabarti
Music by Ravi Shankar
Cinematography Subrata Mitra
Edited by Dulal Dutta
Production
company
Distributed by Aurora Film Corporation (1955)
Edward Harrison (1958)
Merchant Ivory Productions
Sony Pictures Classics (1995)
Release date
  • 26 August 1955 (1955-08-26) (India)
Running time
112–126 minutes
Country India
Language Bengali
Budget 70,000–1,50,000 (US$14,600–31,300)

Pather Panchali ([pɔt̪ʰer pãtʃali], English: Song of the Little Road) is a 1955 Indian Bengali-language drama film directed by Satyajit Ray (1921–1992) and produced by the Government of West Bengal. It is based on Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's 1929 Bengali novel of the same name and is Ray's directorial debut. It features Subir Banerjee, Kanu Banerjee, Karuna Banerjee, Uma Dasgupta and Chunibala Devi. The first film in the Apu trilogy, Pather Panchali depicts the childhood of the protagonist Apu (Subir Banerjee) and his elder sister Durga (Uma Dasgupta) and the harsh village life of their poor family.

Production was interrupted because of funding problems and it took nearly three years for the film to be completed. The film was shot mainly on location, had a limited budget, featured mostly amateur actors, and was made by an inexperienced crew. 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 later 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 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.


...
Wikipedia

...