![]() Ray was the first Indian to receive the Academy Honorary Award for his tremendous impact on film making. Ray followed his instincts and solved problems like how to film in the midst of a rain storm with umbrellas, tarps, and a “must do” attitude. ![]() At the time, movie crews waited for good weather and shut down production if it was raining. Inexperience may have actually fostered creativity. Despite all this inexperience, early footage was so compelling it helped Ray obtain financing for the rest of his movie. When Ray started filming his movie “Pather Panchali,” he had never directed a single scene, his cinematographer had never filmed a single scene, and his child actors had never acted. He was drawn into film making after meeting the French director Jean Renoir and after seeing Vittorio De Siva’s Italian neorealist film “Bicycle Thieves” during a visit to London. Satyagit Ray, the director of “Pather Panchali,” started his career as a commercial artist. The remaining two movies in the Apu trilogy, “Aparajito” and “Apur Sansar,” are discussed in Chapter 8, “Coming of Age.” The Apu trilogy traces the course of a young man’s life from childhood, to coming of age, to marriage, and finally to maturity. My heart grew two sizes the first time I watched “Pather Panchali!” The film is deeply moving because it celebrates life while acknowledging the inevitability of death. “Pather Panchali” is a priceless treasure of world cinema. They communicate the “transience of things.” These objects give exquisite meaning to Ray’s film. Objects in the film, including the rice container with its slowly diminishing contents, the stolen fruit, Auntie’s new shawl, the stolen necklace, and Durga’s treasure box ground the human drama in the material world. She is full of life in the midst of the storm. In a particularly beautiful scene, Apu’s sister dances wildly in a downpour. The camera travels along forest paths, alongside rivers, and records the gathering clouds of an approaching storm. The cinematographer, Subrata Mitra, follows the children in scenes of extraordinary beauty. The children explore the countryside hoping to catch a glimpse of a passing train. When Apu’s mother gets angry at her and tells her to leave, she goes from door to door in the village asking, “Can I stay?” She has no home and no possessions except for the clothes she is wearing. Doubled over and deeply wrinkled, she was eighty when shooting began and died shortly after the film was completed. The most compelling character in the film is the old aunt, played by Chunibala Devi. It is Apu’s mother who worries about money owed to relatives, about food for the children, and about repairs to their home. His father is full of ideas and plans which he believes will eventually sustain the family. His father has brought the family back to the family’s ancestral village despite the misgivings of Apu’s always worried mother. He is living with his parents, his older sister, and his very old aunt. “Pather Panchali” tells the story of Apu’s childhood. The film’s title means “The Song of the Little Road.” ![]() “Pather Panchali” is the first film in the trilogy. The trilogy is based on a famous novel about the life of a young man named Apu. The three films swept the top prizes at Cannes and created a new cinema for India. Ray’s magnificent Apu trilogy creates a world so real that it feels like we have stepped into another life. Why is this film so beautiful and why is it so moving? Still, I felt a need to offer some explanation for what I was feeling. After I watched his movie “Pather Panchali,” I said to myself, “This is the most moving film I have ever seen!” It is impossible to prove that something is beautiful. ![]() My judgment that Satyagit Ray is the world’s greatest filmmaker is not based on an opinion poll but purely on my own feelings.
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