Pather Panchali

Director: Satyajit Ray

1955 / 122min / DCP

Inspired by an encounter with Jean Renoir, in Kolkata to shoot his The River, and the neorealist films that had emerged from postwar Italy, Ray set out to make his debut feature, an adaptation of the 1929 Bildungsroman by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, a beloved classic of Bengali literature about the coming-of-age of a boy living in a Bengal village. The resulting film, shot over the course of almost three years, was a breakthrough moment for Indian cinema on the world stage, a tender and lyrical depiction of rural family life set to a soundtrack of classical Indian ragas performed by sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar who, thanks in no small part to Ray’s film, would soon achieve international celebrity.

“Looking at the world anew with a child-like curiosity and wondering whether it is the falling rain, the thundering train, or the swaying flowers.” —Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan

Introduction by Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan on Saturday, October 19th