• 3 years ago
Apu and his sister Durga try to make the most out of their poverty-stricken lives. Soon, when their father goes to the city for a job and their mother becomes increasingly bitter, things go downhill.

Initial release: August 26, 1955 (India)

Director: Satyajit Ray

Screenplay: Satyajit Ray

Story by: Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay

Awards: National Film Award for Best Feature Film, more


Pather Panchali (Bengali: পথের পাঁচালী, Pôther Pãchali, translated as Song of the Road) is a 1929 novel written by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay and was later adapted into a 1955 film of the same name by Satyajit Ray. Pather Panchali deals with the life of the Roy family, both in their ancestral village in rural Bengal and later when they move to Varanasi in search of a better life, as well as the anguish and loss they face during their travels.


Pather Panchali is a 1955 Indian Bengali-language drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray 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.



PLOT

Horihor Ray, not a very well-to-do Brahmin, lives in the village of Nischindipur. Indir Thakrun, an old widowed woman, who had nobody to look after her, takes shelter in the house of Horihor to whom she is distantly related. But Horihor's wife Shorbojoya, an ill-tempered lady, cannot bear the sight of the old woman. She is therefore given a tumble-down thatched hut to live in. However, Durga, Shorbojoya's six-year-old daughter, is very fond of Indir Thakrun and stays with her for hours to listen to fairy-tales.

After some time a son is born to Shorbojoya. Shorbojoya is jealous of Indir Thakrun as she thinks that Durga is more fond of the old woman than of her mother. So Indir Thakrun is mercilessly turned out of the hut for a trifling reason. The helpless old woman implores for shelter in her dying moments but she is heartlessly refused and so she breathes her last breaths in a rice-barn.

Four or five years later, the boy Apu grows up to be very inquisitive and sensitive to the beauty and mystery of nature. He and his sister Durga are always out for some new adventures like roaming through the forests, taking part in indigenous games and plucking flowers and fruits stealthily. Apu is admitted into the village school where many village elders assemble and talk on diverse subjects. Apu is taken by his father to a client's house. It is the first time that Apu gets a glimpse of the outside world which fills his mind with joy and excitement. The village festivity, the fair, and the Jatra performance, all bring variety and thrill to the monotonous flow of village life.

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