Panther Panchali – Song Of The Little Road
Pather Panchali is a 1955 Indian Bengali language drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray and produced by the Governement of Bengal. It is based on Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay 1929 Bengali novel of the same name and is Ray’s directorial debut.
Great film-makers tell us right from the title where we will be heading over the course of the film. In case of Pather Panchali, the paper used as a background to the titles were imposed with imperfections, perhaps Ray wanted to portray in the mind of the viewers, it’s not going to be a structured film, in fact, a film full of life with all its imperfection inscribed on it.
Characters
The opening of any great film sets the scene and introduces the quintessence of the characters, and Pather Panchali was also no different.
The opening scene starts with the neighbor who owns an orchard, she notices there’s somebody in their orchard stealing fruits, and the immediate next shot is of a little girl in the woods and she is running away, by cutting it short Ray introduces us to a bit of her character. She is a mischievous, sprightly little girl who is absolutely filled with life, and then we see her coming back to her home where she gives the fruit to her aunt, she pulls out some milk and feeds the kittens revealing the kind and affectionate side of her character, the audience are bound to admire Durga right from the very beginning.
The next scene revolves around a spat between Durga’s mother Sarbojaya and her old aunt Indir Thakran. Indir was related to Sarbojaya’s husband in a very tenuous way, and she’s been living with them all along. They are poor, have nothing to eat but still had to share everything with her, which made Sarbojaya cruel towards her and we come to know more about their strained relation as the film progresses.
The introduction of Harihar Ray, Durga’s father was marginal compared to the women in the film. He is a priest, a poet and an artist who supports his family with his petty income. In his first screen appearence he looks tensed, walks frantically along the corridor and is puffing away as the real activity is taking place in the other room and that is his wife is giving birth to Apu.
It’s the first time Ray introduces Apu as a person who gradually will evolve to be the main character in the context of the trilogy. The introduction happens via Durga as she comes through the gate, walks right across the yard and wakes up his brother.
Post the actual introduction, there is a brief montage sequence between Apu, Durga and their mother. The shot tells us about how both the characters face the boy with pure love and adoration, she loves her brother as much as the mother and she is not jealous of him. The entire montage doesn’t have a single line of dialogue, only Ravi Shankar’s sitar plays in the background.
The Necklace
Amidst all the series of events happening in the Ray family, the most shocking event takes place one day, when the rich neighbour breaks through the front door and accuses Durga of having stolen her daughter’s necklace, Durga’s mother Sarbojaya is shocked by this and after such insult she couldn’t hold back her emotions, and drags Durga by her hair and throw her out of the house shutting the door behind. The sequence is beautifully depicted by Ray through a hole in the wall, and a broken gate separates the mother and the daughter.
The Train
The moment arrives when Apu and Durga finally decides to go towards the train. They have never seen it before only they used to hear its whistle across the cotton fields.They are going further and further out of the village, may be to the land of unknown, may be towards the train or may be to a place where they want to patch up the quarell.
The train scene is regarded as one of the most defining scenes in film history. The innocent curiosity, excitement and awe of seeing a train for the first time were written on the faces of the siblings. The speeding train leaving a trail of black smoke against the back drop of white clouds above and surrounded by cotton fields or Kash-Phool evolved the train scene to a surrealist painting which only few directors like Ray can portray on celluloid in the world of cinema.
If observed minutely the scene where both Apu and Durga run to see a glimpse of the train, Durga falls midway, and it was only Apu who could witness the train. So somehow, Durga’s wish never gets materialized, maybe Ray wanted to convey that Durga will never be able to make out of the narrow alleys of Nischindipur, whereas Apu will surpass the village to reach the modern city.
Indir’s Death
There are series of events happening parallelly, intercut with the train sequence is aunt Indir being expelled from her brother’s house. She looks pale, weak and is going to die eventually.
“God the day is finished, evening has descended, now please take me across”
Ray choses to reveal the death of aunt through Durga, as she was more close to her among all the family members or perhaps may be both of them are linked in death as very soon after her death Durga will also die.
Joy Of Monsoon
Eventually, monsoon arrives, and we see Apu running home through a large field, a disturbance in the lily pads, gusting sound of the winds, and sound of thunder from the black clouds. Everything looked like a visual poetry in the celluloid.
The scene shifts, we see it has begun to rain. Apu runs for cover under a grove and watches Durga as she enjoys herself in the rain and teases his little brother, before joining him. They sat under the shelter, sharing the simple joys of life observing mother nature in her full glory. The scene remains as one of the most poetic depictions of the monsoon in Indian cinema. The entire sequence was accompanied by a soothing Ravi Shankar’s background score that gradually picked up the tempo and created a visual poetry.
Durga’s Demise
Sadly this will be the children’s last burst of joy before tragedy strikes, as Durga falls ill and dies due to thorough drenching.
Before her death, there is a shot of Durga and Apu, where she is lying on bed and on the verge of dying. She pulls Apu towards her and tells him that when she’s better they will go look at the trains again, and they smile at each other, but sadly it never happened.
Ray was a master of portrayal of death scenes. Deaths of Indir Thakran earlier, Harihar and Sarbajaya in Aparajito, Aparna (Apu’s wife)in Apur Sansar will always be remembered but death of Durga in Pather Panchali will remain as the most dramatic one in the trilogy.
After Durga’s death , Apu founds out the neighbour’s necklace from Durga’s belongings. He throws it into the pond and the lotus leaves cover up the place where the necklace enters the water — the burial of a small secret memory between a brother and his sister.
The Journey
In the last scene, we see a snake slithering into the ancestral home, mother nature has taken hold of the abandoned house. The family sets off in an ox-cart that takes them to the city, where a new fate awaits them. The camera zooms in on Harihar’s face slowly, which serves to reflect their grief, and acceptance of fate.
Pather Panchali is undoubtedly lyrical and beautiful. A simple story of struggle of a poor brahmin family to survive in their rural, ancestral village in the post-independent Bengal. It was the first of its kind made in independent India that managed to attract so much international attention for its simplicty and the realist narrative style of story telling.
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