Writer, director
Satyajit Ray

Based on
Pather Panchali, novel by Bibhutibhushan Banerjee

Cinematography
Subrata Mitra

Music
Pandit Ravi Shankar

Cast
Harihar, the father : Kanu Banerjee
Sarbajaya, the mother : Karuna Banerjee
Apu : Subir Banerjee
Durga, young girl: Uma Das Gupta
Durga, child : Runki Banerjee
Indir Thakrun, old aunt: Chunibala Devi
Sweet seller: Haren Banerjee

I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing Pather Panchali. It is the kind of cinema that flows with the serenity and nobility of a big river. People are born, live out their lives, and then accept their deaths. Without the least effort and without any sudden jerks, Ray paints his picture, but its effect on the audience is to stir up deep passions. How does he achieve this? There is nothing irrelevant or haphazard in his cinematographic technique. In that lies the secret of its excellence.

So said Akira Kurosawa, the great Japanese director, who certainly knew a film genius when he saw one. Satyajit Ray suddenly came to prominence in the west with this, his debut film, when it won the Best Foreign Film at Cannes in 1956. A clutch of other prizes followed.

Pather Panchali, or as it is sometimes called in English Song of the [Little] Road was the first in his 'Apu trilogy' - named after the young boy in this film who becomes a central character in the other two (Aparajito and Apur Sansar, which follow Apu as the son, the man and finally the father).

Pather Panchali has a universal humanist appeal. Though the film deals with the grim struggle for survival by a poor family, it has no trace of melodrama. What is projected instead is a simple, timeless respect for human dignity.

The plot
It some time in the early 1900s in a remote village in Bengal. The film deals with a Brahmin (upper-caste) family - a priest, Harihar; his wife Sarbajaya; daughter Durga; his aged cousin Indir Thakrun - struggling to make ends meet.

Harihar is frequently away from home on work. The wife is raising her mischievous daughter Durga and caring for elderly cousin Indir, whose independent spirit sometimes irritates her... a familiar situtation to anyone living with elderly relatives. One day Apu is born; with the little boy's arrival, happiness, play and exploration uplift the children's daily life.

Durga and Apu share an intimate bond. They follow a sweet-seller whose wares they can not afford, enjoy the theatre, discover a train, and witness a marriage ceremony. They even face death of their aunt - Indir Thakrun. Durga is accused of a theft. She falls ill after a joyous dance in rains of the monsoon. On a stormy day, when Harihar is away on work, Durga dies.

On Harihar's return, the family leaves their village in search of a new life in Varanasi (Benares). The film closes with an image of Harihar, wife and son Apu, slowly moving way in an ox cart.