Rating: 
Summary: Revelation
Review: The story builds to scenes that will leave no good person unchanged. A heirloom of humanity. The black and white depiction of the wood is only equalled by Kurosawa. Personally I think it has the greatest appearance of a train in film history.
Rating: 
Summary: Overpraised, but full of good things.
Review: There has been a conspiracy in film histories, even in those that profess sympathy to non-American cinemas, to reduce Indian cinema to the populism of Bollywood and the humanism of Satyajit Ray. It is when you see audacious films like Ghitak's 'The Cloud-Capped Star' that Ray's conservatism becomes apparent, his stylistic restraint, his formal totalising, his apoliticism.This is not to say that 'Pather' isn't full of good things - the move from social realism to the mystical; the montages of nature; the Gothic structure leading to the most harrowing storm in cinema; the space for comedy and play amidst all the poverty; the startling introduction of Apu. By all means start with Ray; just remember he's not the whole story.
Rating: 
Summary: Sony DVD of Poor Quality
Review: This cinematic masterpiece has been brought out on DVD by "Sony Pictures Classics" and is, unfortunately, of poor quality. While I've not seen the "Criterion Collection" version being offered here, I certainly hope it's better than the Sony. What it looks like the latter has done is merely transfer the VHS version onto DVD without any digital enhancements. What a pity to do this to so fine a film. Yes, one can still get a feel for the work's quality, but it certainly doesn't help viewing a diffuse, aged print.
Rating:
Summary: Sony DVD of Poor Quality
Review: This cinematic masterpiece has been brought out on DVD by "Sony Pictures Classics" and is, unfortunately, of poor quality. While I've not seen the "Criterion Collection" version being offered here, I certainly hope it's better than the Sony. What it looks like the latter has done is merely transfer the VHS version onto DVD without any digital enhancements. What a pity to do this to so fine a film. Yes, one can still get a feel for the work's quality, but it certainly doesn't help viewing a diffuse, aged print.
Rating:
Summary: Sony DVD of Poor Quality
Review: This cinematic masterpiece has been brought out on DVD by "Sony Pictures Classics" and is, unfortunately, of poor quality. While I've not seen the "Criterion Collection" version being offered here, I certainly hope it's better than the Sony. What it looks like the latter has done is merely transfer the VHS version onto DVD without any digital enhancements. What a pity to do this to so fine a film. Yes, one can still get a feel for the work's quality, but it certainly doesn't help viewing a diffuse, aged print.
Rating:
Summary: rays masterpiece
Review: This is one of those films that never ceases to move you, even if you watch this little saga involving a poor Bengali family in the modern world that we live in today. Rays direction, Ravi Shankar's score and the utter simplicity yet the poignant imagery in this film are a tribute to the genius that was Satyajit Ray
Rating:
Summary: Good for Fat Americans to See
Review: This one reminded me of another great Asian film, Tokyo Story. Of course, this film takes place in India in 1919, so it is of the early 20th century while Tokyo Story covered emerging Japan in the early 1950's. But India in 1919 was poor and surely nothing has changed. The contrast between the emerging Japan and Satyajit Ray's impoverished Brahmans is quite stark except for the slow interplay and paced crisis in the screenplays. The gradual destruction of the little boy Apu's family unfolds step-by-step delivering pathos, simple pleasures, the loneliness, sickness, and death of a loved one. Modern audiences will have trouble sitting there as this unfolds, but it is worth it.
Black and white photography has its fans, and the cinematography of Pather Panchali is fascinating. The bamboo forests, the rice patties, the lakes full of wildlife are photographed. The people seem to weave between this nature and we can only imagine the Indian landscape in shocking color. This is both strength and a weakness. I wanted to see the colors, but alas.
The acting is nothing less than scary in this movie. The old woman on her last legs was unbelievable. There's no Hollywood casting that could have produced her. The children were charming, the parents suffering, knowing. Amazing. I'll have to see the rest of the Abu trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: The best indian film in the Century!
Review: This poignant film is about a poor family who has to survive in the middle of the merciless poverty . The idealist father , his wife who struggles to support the family , and their sons .
The countless conflicts are not enough to stop the undeniable spirit; nevertheless the tragedy will come .
Watch that classic film one of the top gems in the universal cinema!
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