Pather Panchali

Little Apu grows up in a poor Bengali village in a Brahmin family. His father, Harihar, is a dreamer whose out-of-touchedness keeps his family in poverty, while his mother Sarbajaya desperately tries to save them all from hunger. Harihar's big plans for his son do not materialize. With his sister Durga, Apu roams the surroundings of the village to forget the misery of his home, at least temporarily. When Ray began work on his film debut, he was familiar with the major works of the first five decades of cinema history thanks to numerous screenings organized by the Calcutta Film Society, which he had co-founded, and a stay in London. He was particularly influenced by Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, Italy 1948) by Vittorio De Sica. He shot his adaptation of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's eponymous novel over a period of two-and-a-half years with Subrata Mitra (camera) and Bansi Chandragupta (set design) while at the same time working as a commercial artist. Not long after its premiere, the film achieved worldwide fame and became one of the milestones in film history. (gv)