FILM DETAILS

• Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road)
• Dir. Satyajit Ray
• 1955, India (Bengali), 125 mins
• Produced by the Government of West Bengal
• Screenplay by Satyajit Ray, based on the novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
• Cinematographer: Subrata Mitra (use of natural light, poetic compositions)
• Music: Ravi Shankar (famous sitar virtuoso)
• Art director: Bansi Chandragupta

Fun Facts

• This was Ray’s first film. He had never directed a movie, and his 21-year-old cinematographer, Subrata Mitra, had never shot one
• Production began in 1952 but was repeatedly interrupted by a lack of money. The government of West Bengal eventually helped finance the film, which was completed in 1955
• The film won the Best Human Document award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956 – and gained international attention
• This is the first film in Ray’s celebrated Apu Trilogy, followed by Aparajito (1956) and The World of Apu (1959)

CAST/CHARACTERS

• Subir Banerjee as Apu, the young boy
• Uma Dasgupta as Durga, Apu’s older sister
• Karuna Banerjee as Sarbajaya, their mother
• Kanu Banerjee as Harihar, their father
• Chunibala Devi as Indir Thakrun, the elderly auntie

KEY TERMS

• Apu Trilogy, Bengali cinema, Indian parallel cinema, Italian neo-realism (on location, amateur actors…), poetic realism, independent India, rural poverty, childhood, the train, the monsoon

WORKSHEET QUESTIONS:

1. Sketch one shot in the rectangle below – an important shot from an important scene
2. Describe the filmmakers’ use of the elements of film in this scene