Pather Panchali (1955)

Director:

Satyajit Ray

Writers:

Satyajit Ray (screenplay)
Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (novel)

Release Date:

22 September 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Sometime in the early years of the century, a boy, Apu, is born to a poor Brahmin family in a village in Bengal...

Plot Keywords:

Struggle | Village | Stealing | Aunt | India

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 8 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Kanu Bannerjee	...	Harihar Ray (as Kanu Bandyopadhyay)
Karuna Bannerjee	...	Sarbojaya Ray (as Karuna Bandopadhyay)
Chunibala Devi	...	Indir Thakrun
Uma Das Gupta	...	Durga (as Uma Dasgupta)
Subir Banerjee	...	Apu (as Subir Bandopadhyay)
Runki Banerjee	...	Little Durga (as Runki Bandopadhyay)
Reba Devi	...	Seja Thakrun
Aparna Devi	...	Nilmoni's wife
Tulsi Chakraborty	...	Prasanna, school teacher
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Haren Banerjee	...	Chinibas, Sweet-seller (as Haren Bandyopadhyay)
Rampada Das
Nibhanani Devi	...	Dasi Thakurun
Rama Gangopadhaya	...	Ranu Mookerjee
Roma Ganguli	...	Roma (as Rama Gangopadhyay)
Binoy Mukherjee	...	Baidyanath Majumdar (as Binoy Mukhopadhyay)
Haridhan Nag
Harimohan Nag	...	Doctor
Kshirod Roy	...	Priest
Suren Roy

Directed by
Satyajit Ray

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay		novel
Satyajit Ray		screenplay

Original Music by
Ravi Shankar

Cinematography by
Subrata Mitra

Film Editing by
Dulal Dutta

Production Design by
Bansi Chandragupta

Art Direction by
Bansi Chandragupta

Production Management
Anil Choudhury	....	production manager
Suren Sahu	....	assistant production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ashish Barman	....	assistant director
Santi Chatterjee	....	assistant director (as Shantikumar Chattopadhyay)
Subir Hajra	....	assistant director

Art Department
Suresh Chandra Chandra	....	assistant art director (as Suresh Chandra)
Dibakar Dutta	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Bhupen Ghosh	....	sound recordist
Samir Ghosh	....	assistant sound recordist
Durgacharan Mitra	....	additional sound recordist

Camera and Electrical Department
Jagmohan Behrowa	....	assistant camera
Baren Bhattacharya	....	assistant camera
Dinen Gupta	....	assistant camera
Nimai Roy	....	assistant camera
Soumendu Roy	....	assistant camera

Editorial Department
Bemananda Brajwasi	....	assistant editor
Harinarayan Mukhopadhyay	....	assistant editor
Tapeshwar Prasad	....	assistant editor
Sukumar Sengupta	....	chief assistant editor

Music Department
Satyen Chatterjee	....	music recordist (as Satyen Chattopadhyay)
Sitaram Das	....	musician
Aloknath Dey	....	flute (as Alok Dey)
Pratap Narayan Mitra	....	pakhowaj (as Pratapnarayan Mitra)
Dakshina Mohan Tagore	....	dilruba and tarmalai (as Dakshinamohan Tagore)

Other crew
Somen Gupta	....	assistant publicist
R.B. Mehta	....	processing supervisor

Production Companies

• Government of West Bengal

Distributors

• Filmmuseum Distributie (2008) (Netherlands) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Merchant Ivory Productions (1995) (USA) (theatrical) (restored version)
• Sony Pictures Classics (1995) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• trigon-film (2010) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Curzon Film Distributors (1957) (UK)
• Divisa Home Video (2004) (Spain) (DVD)
• Edward Harrison (1958) (USA) (subtitled)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2008) (Australia) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2008) (Australia) (TV)
• trigon-film (2010) (Austria) (all media)
• trigon-film (2010) (Germany) (all media)
• trigon-film (2010) (Switzerland) (DVD) (special edition)

Also Known As:

"Song of the Little Road" - International (English title) (informal title)

Runtime:

India:122 min (within Bengal) | Argentina:119 min

Country:

India

Language:

Bengali

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:U | Argentina:Atp | Canada:G (Nova Scotia/Québec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Netherlands:AL | Netherlands:AL (re-release) (2008) | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | USA:Not Rated

Company:

Government of West Bengal

Trivia:

The film never had a complete screenplay. The cast took most of their cues from Ray's drawings and notes.

Quotes:

Durga:Listen...
Apu:What is it?
Durga:When I'm better, we'll go and look at the trains again. We'll get a good look this time.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Episode #1.6" (2011)

Soundtrack:

It's A Long Way to Tipperary

A song for a long road ahead.

There is this one scene in Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali when the eruption of a conflict between Apu's family and a quarrelsome neighbour brought the film to a complete standstill (for me anyway). Those few characters' state of mind and their relationship dynamics at that point in time, was conveyed with such explosive intensity, I got gut punched drunk.

Pather Panchali boasts of suitably melodramatic yet highly intuitive performances. Its breath taking cinematography ranks alongside existential beauty this side of Malick heaven. The musical scoring, by the great Ravi Shankar, is identifiably Indian, yet universally sublime. Together, these myriad parts melded into a whole so grand in its social consciousness, so incisively intimate in its portrait of one family, I could do nothing but be slowly devoured like a most willing prey.

On 4th Oct 2003, I saw my all time favourite film, Tokyo Story. The feeling I got today from Pather Panchali, is as close as is possible from that fateful October day.

Pather Panchali is one of the best films I have ever seen. This will be a night to remember. Now on with the other two then.