Pather Panchali

Rating:
Summary: Pather Panchali
Review: "NOT with CRITICAL CRITIQUE'S EYE but of my QUEST OF BUEATY in movies".******* It happened just like a dream. On a lazy boring late Sunday afternoon, you pull out mindlessly an old book from your bookshelf. Openned a page and start reading it then till to the last page without stopping while forgetting about every other thing you need to do. A sheer poetry, simple and quiet story telling yet beautifully intertwined of the tragedies, hopes, dreams in living of lowest family life of small village in India. Children playing,cats are playing, dogs are chasing, old woman weaving her remaining life best as she knows,cows are munching, raindrops making music on a pond, wind blowing and I bet the sky was blue and blue when Apu and his sister were following the path acrossing the field to go to see the train.


Rating:
Summary: Simple, intense, beautiful
Review: A movie like this really spits in the face of Hollywood. Not on purpose; just inevitably. First of all, the story is simple--people on the brink. Their need, hope, love, despair are raw because their lives are. There are no gimmicks to keep us interested, and we don't need any. Excellent acting (even from the kids!) keeps this intensity from ever becoming melodramatic, and because of this directness, you feel that you really know (even become in some way) the characters. No matter what the viewer's background, it is impossible not to connect with these people. There is no filler in this movie; everything has meaning--a glance, a movement of the hand, trees in the wind all have something to say and no one has to spell it out for us. Shot in black and white, every scene is like a beautiful photograph. This movie just kept pushing home the fragile brutality of life and the responsibility we all have toward each other, how little it takes to make another's life just a little more bearable or unbearable. It's one of those movies that stays with you. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Rating:
Summary: Pure cinema!
Review: A precious gem of a film, this masterpiece from India clearly depicts what cinema is all about. An exercise in prose through dumbfounding imagery, ensemble acting with an exceptional performance of the lady who played "Auntie". This film about life's cycle set amid India's squalor haunts me to this day. The scene where Apu finds his sister's stolen necklace and tosses it out in the water clears the line between honesty and his love for his sister. What a sublime way to depict humanity in cinema. Pather Panchali is the best of the Satyajit Ray trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: Song of the Little Road
Review: Delicate, almost lyrical black-and-white images, offer insight into the harshness of life in a rural Bengali village. Panther Panchali is the first movie in Satyajit Ray's (1921-1992) compelling Apu Trilogy. Ravi Shankar's hauntingly beautiful music takes this movie to a mythical level.

Satyajit Ray's ability to reveal this story at a leisurely pace, all while intriguing you with the details of Indian life, keeps you captive to the last minute. Even the old stone buildings of the ancestral home seem artistic.

In the first story we find Durga stealing guavas and Apu is not yet born. As Durga's mother, Sarbajaya (Karuna Bannerjee), struggles to look after family members she is already responsible for, her relatives criticize her for her lack of leadership in the family. The auntie Indir (Chunibala Devi) takes delight in Durga's adventures and loves the gifts of bananas and guavas.

There is a comforting scene where she is seen sitting against an ancient wall while she rocks Apu in a basket hanging from the ceiling. As she sings there is a moment of serenity in this world where each day seems to be a fight for survival. Her optimistic attitude is almost heroic in the light of how she is often treated. She has much to offer her community and excels at story telling. Watch for the scene where her face is silhouetted against the wall late at night. This movie has many cinematic moments that border on enlightened creativity.

For some reason, this movie reminded me of living in Africa on a campsite/farm where we would borrow a cup of sugar from the neighbors house or wander down a path to the river. Here we find the comical "Indir" stealing chilies or other cooking supplies from Sarbajaya. Sarbajaya is overwhelmed by her own life and yet later she is faced with her own loneliness as she sinks into depression.

Apu's father, Harihar, struggles to find work although he has dreams of seeing his plays performed. He is truly an example of a beautiful soul vibrating at a higher level of creativity than those around him and yet he is forced to take on menial work just to survive.

As the story progresses Apu grows into an adorable whisp of a child and I love the scene where he and his sister walk down the well-worn path. There are scenes of dancing in the monsoon rains and while all the characters seem to be living in their own worlds, they somehow function in their community in a meaningful way. As the rains bring life back to the land, nothing can prepare you for the emotional impact of the scenes that follow.

Overall, I was impressed with the brilliance of the storytelling and how each story weaves almost effortlessly into the next. Pather Panchali is one of the rare film experiences no one should miss. Not only does it address the basics of survival in a community, it makes you think about your own role and how your choices affect everyone around you.

If you can watch Aparajito and The World of Apu in the next few days following your first viewing of Panther Panchali, your experience will turn into a complete immersion in the intriguing and exotic world of Apu. After watching the first movie, I could hardly wait to watch the second and within a day I had watched the third. These movies will leave you in the deepest of contemplation for days and not only will you find yourself lost within the minds of the characters, you will enjoy all the connections between the movies.

~TheRebeccaReview.com

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Expertly made film, enjoyable in all respects. The acting is good, and the story compelling. Five stars!

Rating:
Summary: An Important Film
Review: I had read an inmense amount of articles regarding this film by Satyajit Ray as one of the greatest works of art in film history. I can safely say this is no exaggeration. It is an unbelievably moving demonstration of what cinema can achieve. The story deals with the problems faced by a family because of the poverty they can't escape. My favorite performances were those given by the actresses who portrayed Dungar and Auntie. It is a definite hearbreaker, with a beautiful, poetic ending. I can only say I'll be looking up the two sequels this one inspired- -"Aparajito" and "The World of Apu"--very soon

Rating:
Summary: A Movie of Haunting Images
Review: I ordered this DVD off Amazon.com because I had seen its' name pop up over the years as one of the best movies of all time. I am not going to promote nor challenge that reputation. I found it to be an outstanding movie worthy of its' praise but be mindful that this is no "Citizen Kane", "The Godfather", nor "Lawrence of the Arabia". This is because, for most of the film, it does not appear to have a plot. What we get are seemingly the scenes of life in a rural Bengali household at some point in time in the first half of the 20th Century. For awhile, we keep waiting for things to "happen" while gradually taking note of the different lifestyles and the various personalities that we see on the screen. Eventually, and unfortunately, things later DO happen and, by the time they do, we have become intimately attached to the family we have been watching. I will not go into detail as to the events but I do want to say that I was deeply moved and I know that there are scenes in this movie that will always pull on my heart strings. The reason for the impact, I realized, was in the brilliance of the cinematic presentation. Although only his first movie, the director, Satyajit Ray, shows a masterful ability to create visual images that convey deep meanings. There are scenes of love and grief that are among the most powerful I've ever seen. There are subtle incidents and images that tell us vollumes about the characters and events.

I know that India has a significant film industry and has had for years but I don't believe I've ever seen an "Indian" movie before. One of the things that impressed me the most about the movie was the quality of the acting. There is an elderly women referred to as "Auntie" who has to be seen to be believed. She is the image of a broken-down old woman and she would have stolen the spotlight in any other movie (and often does in this one). However, there is enough other talent to keep our attention moving around. The daughter, Durga, is quite memorable as is Apu. The father is a bit odd but that is the image I believe he was meant to convey. It is the mother, whose name escapes me, that leaves the greatest impression. She is a woman who feels that she was meant to live a better life but struggles everyday to make the most of what she has. She is the strength of the family yet she has obvious faults. Bad luck haunts her all the way but, though she complains, she will not give up.

I recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see a brilliantly depiction of a family's struggle with life itself. I do not recommend the movie to those who don't particularly care to get emotionally involved with a movie's characters. If you have seen and enjoyed "Tokyo Story" you do not want to miss "Pather Panchali".

Rating:
Summary: A must-see film!
Review: If any person should ever desire to see "a good foreign film", "Pather Panchali" is the one I would recommend. Though it was filmed in the '50's, it is ageless. As an English-speaking American who does not enjoy period films, I must say that this film completely transported me to the world of Durga and Apu, and I had no desire to come back...

Rating:
Summary: Reflections of Life
Review: It is such a simple film with a simple theme, and yet, so thought-provoking. There seems to be something for us all there, some feeling of childhood seems to rush back even though the movie is from a different time and place. It is a simple potrayal of one of the thousands of families who suffer in poverty and yet does not leave hope of a better tomorrow, an education and a creative career, who learn to enjoy each day as it comes. The movie does not spare its characters, showing them as nothing more than humans. The stealing of the bead necklace by Durga, the throwing out of the old aunt by Sarbajaya, the irresponsibility of the father inspite of love for his family....all these seems to malign each character and yet it only potrays vulnereability and helplessness and somehow we can only feel a strange kind of tenderness for all of them, even the old lady who encourages the stealing. I wish it was in colour, then we would have been able to see some spectacular scenes of Bengal...the fields when the trains pass by, the freshness of the monsoons and the lotus covered ponds. I would recommend all who have seen and liked this movie also to read the book. It is a wonderful experience.

Rating:
Summary: Still next best to the original movie
Review: No question about the fact that the effort that went into restoring the film is laudable. The DVD disappoints somewhat on a couple of counts. Firstly, if you want to watch it again with subtitles off, just to admire the visual compositions (in Ray's own words, there's no beautiful or ugly shots...only the right and wrong ones) that went into the storytelling, it doesn't let you do so. The subtitles, can, therefore be distracting. Secondly, there are loads of material written (a lot of it by Ray himself) and filmed (like interviews, especially the ones by Lindsay Anderson, and by Shyam Benegal/Govind Nihalani) with anecdotes of how the film was shot, and which could have been included in the DVD; such are material which make a DVD a truly collectible item. But really can't complain too much ... better something than nothing.