BFI Film Classics
1 total work
Satyajit Ray is one of the most revered of film directors: Pather Panchali (1955) remains one of the greatest directing debuts. It was the first Indian film to attract widespread attention in Europe and America and is the first instalment in what was to become known, along with Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1958), as the 'Apu trilogy'. In Pather Panchali, Apu is a young boy living with his parents, sister and elderly aunt, in a village in Bengal, against a background of poverty. Influenced by the films of Renoir and inspired by Italian neorealism, it is a film in which small details of daily life take on a universal significance. Vidya Borooah traces the struggle Ray, a commercial artist and illustrator, but a movie novice, faced in making the film and the talent and perseverance he brought to the task. She outlines the success he enjoyed in his parallel career as a writer and addresses his sometimes controversial reputation in India. She argues that the film is a lyrical, humanist masterpiece which reveals that from the beginning Ray was a master in the art of cinema.