Pather Panchali

Pather Panchali (The Song of the Road)

This was the first ever movie of Satyajit Ray I’d ever watched, and I must admit that it was a lot better than I’d imagined. Considering that the movie was made in 1955, the cinematographic techniques used in the film were quite impressive. I’m confused as to what I should appreciate as I’ve never before analyzed movies with such subjectivity before. Is it the vision and cinematography of Ray that clicks or the creative genius of Bibhutibhushan who wrote the story and made the characters seem original. One thing strikes me particularly about the movie and that is its simplicity. Its straightforwardness and genuine definitions of happiness, sadness and other contours of life and the way characters embody all these things. Again, the credit can be given to the novelist for this, but Ray surely had the superb ability to communicate these things with the viewer in the right form. As I haven’t read the novel yet so I cannot comment more on the same.

The concept of a native place and it’s relation to the characters is profound. All characters, Durga, Apu, Mother and Father are typical rural Bengali Brahmins living in a small village. Durga is the central character in the movie and the best moments of the movie (to me at least) are when Durga is on the screen. She is an adolescent girl having budding feelings and sense of beauty. She dreams of a future which is full of beauty and simplicity and has the typical aspirations of a village girl. Birth of Apu is a landmark for the family. The boy is innocent and has a close relationship with Durga who is like a mentor and friend to him. He always has his curious and broad open eyes that reflect his tendency to learn and grow. Father is a rural Bengali Brahmin who also happens to be an artist writing plays and songs that never achieve recognition. He is poor and out of luck, but doesn’t complains a lot and accepts his fate. Mother is also a very impressive character in the movie. She is a typical housewife but is surprisingly tough and strong. But she cares a lot about the family and dreams of a better and crisis-free tomorrow. The aunt Indir is a portrayal of poverty and extreme helplessness, only cared about by Durga. She is a strangely picturesque character.

Another noticeable thing about the movie is its background score (By Pt. Ravi Shankar) that really enlightens. It is very soothing at times and makes watching movie a nice experience uplifting your spirit at times. The environment and sets used to shoot the movie seem perfectly natural and in conformity to a small Bengali village. Even the items like pots, household utilities and clothes etc fit well into the picture one has in mind about rural Bengalis. Some of the scenes like when the view from across the moving wheels of train is shown became quite stereotypical movie scenes used in quite a number of movies for cinematographic impact.

I cannot be critical about the movie as I do not know how to rate of judge a movie on its cinematographic features. What else should one notice about the movie while writing a review? I have no idea. Prof. Sarkar asked as to what makes a viewer sympathetic about the characters in the movie. I don’t have the answer to that as well. May be I’ll learn more as I watch more of Ray’s movies. I really look forward to watching Aparajito coming Tuesday.