Pather Panchali (1955)

 Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali"

It is not an overstatement to say that Satyajit Ray's 1955 debut film "Pather Panchali" not only changed Indian cinema in the 20th Century, but is a landmark film in the global film community all together. I would even venture as far to say that "Pather Panchali" is one of the greatest films ever made. It depicts the impoverished life of little Apu and his family, as they try to navigate in their small hut with little to nothing to eat, live on, or do. Despite this desolation, Ray's camera and its ability to capture these narrative events somehow elevates it to the spiritual realm. The film established Ray as a force to be reckoned with in the global market and started his career as a true film auteur. 

Ray started his journey as a visual artist in 1940, at the age of 19, when he attended Visva-Bharati University at the insistence of his mother. There, he fell in love with the visual arts, especially Oriental art. The books he read while attending university is what brought him into the world of film and he eventually became a student of filmmaking. After dropping out of school, he started work as a visual artist for an advertising agency. However, after butting heads with the better-paid British employees, whom Ray felt were "generally very stupid." He started a second job with a printing press and began creating the art for book covers. One of the books he created a cover for was a 1929 novel called "Pather Panchali." After reading the book, he felt inspired to turn it into a film. His love of film grew and grew and, in 1947, started the Calcutta Film Society. Through this organization, Ray screened many foreign films and began studying them. In 1949, renowned global filmmaker Jean Renoir came to Calcutta to shoot his next film, "The River." Ray helped Renoir find locations in the countryside to shoot and was even encouraged by Renoir to achieve his dream of filming "Pather Panchali." In 1950, Ray was sent to London for six months. This is where he saw the film "Bicycle Thieves," in which he walked out of the theater determined to make a film of his own now more than ever. 

Ray did not write a script for "Pather Panchali." Instead, he created a visual storyboard (using his skills as a graphic designer). Ray also changed many of the ideas from the novel for his film, yet kept the main theme and sense of authenticity. Ray was able to collect a group of performers for his project as well as a cinematographer, Subrata Mitra, whom had never actually operated a film camera. Yet, Mitra had been on the production set of Renoir's "The River," where he and Ray both observed and studies the means of production, took notes, and took photographs. Ray had assembled his team to make this picture. 

Despite being ready to go, Ray lacked one aspect: the funding. No producers wanted to fund the film, as it lacked stars, did not contain any action sequences, and was being made by a group of amateurs. Ray was able to borrow enough money to shoot some footage to begin production. He then used the footage that was shot to try and convince prospective producers to fund the entirety of the remaining production. He was still having trouble getting someone to finance, so he continued working as a graphic designer to raise funds, sold his life insurance policy, and convinced his wife to pawn all her jewelry. However, he still ran out of money halfway through filming, which forced him to take a year hiatus. Ray admits that the hiatus could have destroyed the film, if it weren't for 3 miracles: Apu's voice not breaking as he grows in adolescence, Durga not looking any older, and Indir not dying of old age. It wasn't until the government was convinced by the influential friend of Ray's mother, Bidhan Chandra Roy, the Chief Minister of Western Bengal, to help Ray finance his film. The government was misled by the intention of the film, as they believed it to be a documentary to 'uplift the rural.' They even recorded the loan as being for 'road improvements.' The last bit of financing to finish off the project completely came from New York's Museum of Modern Art, who provided Ray the last bit of money he needed after a comment made by renowned filmmaker John Huston. Huston came to India to location scout for his eventual film, "The Man Who Would Be King." Huston managed to see excerpts of Ray's unfinished film and stated that it was "the work of a great filmmaker." Based on this comment alone, the Museum of Modern Art financed the remaining portion of the film's budget. All in all, it took three years for Ray to complete his work.

The finished product exceeded anyone's expectations, although not at first. The film did not do well upon its opening in the Indian market. The main reason for this was the film's complete disregard from the standard format of a 'Bollywood' production. Because of this, "Pather Panchali" ignited a new movement that would be called "Parallel Cinema," which was a movement that differentiated itself from the stylized Bollywood films at the time in favor of filmmaking that was more authentic and had social realism be a key theme. Many Indian critics and audiences felt the film was breaking from the rule of the Indian film establishment. Its blunt depiction of abject poverty, its realism that felt heavily inspired by the neo-realism coming out of Italy at the time, and its 'slice of life' approach to storytelling all created a total incompliance with the cinema that was happening in India at the time. 

However, after the initial shock, the film started to gain traction. After Ray was 'extremely discouraged' from the initial reactions, he began marketing the film in Calcutta with promotional images he designed. For example, he placed a poster image of Apu and Durga running strategically at a busy location in the city. The initial reactions for the first two weeks in Calcutta were still negative, however, theaters started filling up for the film after about two weeks. Word of mouth began giving the film some life where it started getting more moderate successes in India. The Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, even visited a screening of the film and came out of the theater 'impressed.' It was upon his approval that the film was sent to the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, where it won "Best Human Document." The film was released in the UK in 1957 and in the US in 1958, where its acclaim exploded into seismic proportions. 

Critics in the West were not uniformly positive, yet those who favored the film felt it was a towering achievement, not only in Indian cinema, but a monumental shift in global cinema. The film has an overwhelming effect on audiences. There is something that separates "Pather Panchali" from other neo-realist works at the time, or even now. It is somehow built into the visual texture of the film or by Ray's spiritual direction. Many detractors would claim that the film romances poverty to a negative degree. However, I don't believe this is what the film is doing at all. There is a certain beauty within the images that contain a certain spiritual realm. Despite the harsh conditions the family is living in, there is a certain elevation of the very nature of life itself. Ray is able to take the poetic realism of Jean Renoir and elevate to something more like "spiritual realism." It is something that reminds me of elements of a Tarkovsky film, and yet still adheres to the visual interpretations of the neo-realist philosophy. There is something about these images that makes one ponder the very nature of life itself and all its cycles. There is utter beauty to be found here, despite all the tragedy and discomfort. As Akira Kurosawa once noted after a screening of the film, it has the ability to "stir up deep passions." I am entirely unsure of how Ray was able to tap into this unseen realm with his images, but regardless, it is an entirely elevated experience.

It is for these reasons that the film has become such an icon of Indian cinema and of global film history. Its frank depiction of abject poverty, its ruminations on the spiritual realms of life that exist at the most mundane of moments, and its social implications all came together to form the foundations for a new film movement, created an invigorated global film market, and started the career of one of the most celebrated auteurs in film history, Satyajit Ray.