Ray's Unmissable Masterpiece

The renowned Satyajit Ray and his direction have been forever accepted as one of the most artistic combinations of all time. Amongst all his creations, Pather Panchali still remains memorably undisputed. Here's a story commemorating one of its historical achievements.

Satyajit Ray. Illustrated by Riya Kumari: Visual Storyteller at ThisDay

A legendary filmmaker, that's what everyone remembers Satyajit Ray as. It is no less than a fact and it totally justifies him as the artist he was. Pather Panchali which means Song of the Little Road was a Bengali movie that was based on one of the Bengali novels written by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. On 16th August 1958, this movie climbed a high pedestal by remarkably winning the top five awards at the Vancouver Film Festival. While the top five awards seem enough in their own way, it also got an honorary mention at the festival.

Before we dive more into its brilliancy, this film was Ray's debut as a director. With inexperienced actors and a young crew, this movie was made with a tight budget of Rs. 1,50,000. The film portrays a story of a young boy named Apu belonging to a village in Bengal while his family struggles against obstacles related to poverty. It manages to capture beautiful frames showing the affection and relation between Apu and his elder sister who enjoy the most simple things in life. Pleasant simplicity poured out from the film when two kids who couldn't afford candy would follow the seller, run through the fields to watch a train, and witness wedding ceremonies from a distance.

Ray's efforts behind the camera proved that he was very much inspired by the French New wave cinema and the period of neoclassicism that was going on.

Reading the novel made Ray decide to turn it into a film since his meeting with French filmmaker Jean Renoir had already inspired him. He even encouraged him to carry on with it. Hence after his return from London in 1950, Ray was ready to turn himself into a filmmaker. However, Ray's way of working can never be ignored.

When he started working on the film, Ray didn't even have a complete script for Pather Panchali. It was all a mere collection of illustrations and notes. He took the most trivial ends of the book and built up a simple yet amusing movie from scratch. The funding for the movie was however very tight. From the beginning itself, Ray along with his wife had to take desperate measures to get a hold of filming equipment and all the other stuff. He continued working as a graphic designer, pawned his life insurance, and even sold his LP records to earn funds. His wife on the other hand mortgaged all her jewelry.

With a frugal budget and a very new crew, Pather Panchali's shoot began in October 1952.

The path however wasn't easy. There were a lot of obstacles. Ray had eventually run out of funds as well, and it took a total of three years for the entire crew to wind up with the shooting and go on to the postproduction stage. The soundtrack of the film was composed by the legendary Pt. Ravi Shankar who had just started out on his career at that time while it was a debut appearance for the cast and the crew.

The movie was finally released on 26th August 1955. It did have a slow response at the beginning but then made its way through. Pather Panchali had soon enough achieved critical success both nationally and internationally. With all the efforts and ambitions that had been put into the movie came along a variety of awards sweeping its way. Starting from a National award, it went ahead receiving big from Cannes, Rome, San Francisco, and also Vancouver.

Thus, it was a legendary win for Pather Panchali. With the top five Vancouver Film Awards that belonged from the categories of Best Film, Feature-Length Motion Picture, respectively.

Ray's remarkable direction thus never misses, if you are reading this, do give a watch to this film only to get amazed by it.

A Glimpse of the poster; Source: Times of India