Why do we still celebrate Pather Panchali?

The sound of the wind gushing, crops dancing according to the wind, sound of a train approaching from the horizon. A girl and a boy start running towards the train tracks. The girl trips and falls, the boy continues running. The train passes by and the boy is awestruck by the look of the train. It is the first time he has ever witnessed a train. He just stands there and looks at the speedy train. Anyone who has watched Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali will remember this beautiful scene.

Pather is an iconic film in Indian cinema. We still celebrate this movie, and it still remains as one of the best Indian film ever made. This is one of the films which made the audience from all over the world to look at Indian cinema. But, have you ever wondered why the film is still celebrated? It has been 65 years since the film came out, and even now we never end a discussion about Indian films, without talking about this classic.

To begin with, Satyajit Ray is a genius. He is one of the best things that has ever happened to the Indian cinema. Ray’s well-nurtured baby is Pather Panchali. At a time during which Indian cinema only meant Bollywood, this Bengali film stood out. This was visual storytelling in its finest form.

Pather is a tale of a poor Brahmin family, set in a village in West Bengal. Father, Harihar, is a writer who dreams of getting his work published, and earns only a few sums of money. Mother, Sarbojaya, is worried about how to run the family with the very little amount of money which the husband gets home. Durga is the first child and Apu the second. Apu is the pampered child, and we as audience experience most of the film through the eyes of Apu. And then there is the father’s old cousin, Indir Thakrun. She is too old and weak to do anything. Durga and the aunt share a special bond.

Ray was successful in telling the story of this family in the most humane form. The film was mostly shot outdoors. The sense of realism is evident throughout the film. Ray was inspired by Italian neorealism films. Especially, Vittorio De Sica’s, Bicycle Thieves.

Now, what makes the film feel so real? The film captured the details of everyday life in the best possible way. There are long shots, which shows us the characters doing normal things which we do every day. We, as an audience can easily connect to this. The film was all about humans, and what better to capture than what humans do every day? The film never missed out the little things. Ray always loved details. This is just one of the reasons as to why the film still remains with us.

Not to forget, the music and the camera work. One can notice the use of Indian classical and folk instruments throughout the film. This again makes the movie feel more Indian. Grammy-winning sitar player, Ravi Shankar, composed the music for the film. Once you finish watching the film, you cannot help but start humming the music. The use of shehnai during the scene in which Apu’s father learns the death of his daughter is one to be remembered. Shehnai is an instrument used during auspicious ceremonies like marriage but Ray used the instrument when a character learns about the death of the other. The music adds more depth to the film. This doesn’t mean that there is no silence in the film. In fact, the first scene which I described has no background score, and the scene works out perfectly. The scene goes on for more than a minute and a half, and there are four one-line dialogues. All the dialogues put together is less than ten seconds. The silence in this scene sets up the stage for the train. The silence is louder than the train.

The camerawork, needless to say, is beautiful. Every frame resembles a painting. There are many long shots. Ray refused to use many cuts and instead made sure the actors used the entire space. The dialogues are minimal. The movie is a perfect example of visual storytelling. Ray did a lot of pre-production work. His vision of how the film should look was fixed. Overall, the movie speaks for itself.

The film had to be stopped shooting for almost a year due to a shortage of funds. During this period, Ray improved his knowledge of films and filmmaking techniques. Ray himself has said that he likes the second half of the movie more than the first. Try looking at the film closely and even you might spot the slight differences in the way the film was approached.

If you are someone who loves cinema or someone who wants to get into filmmaking, this is one such movie which you shouldn’t miss. Pather is a timeless classic. Period.