Pather Panchali - Experience it!

It is very cold today in Bhopal. A cool chilly breeze flows in our corridors.

We were doing what is expected of us - Sleeping under the comfort of our blankets. Basu, my roomie, brought a movie to watch. Pather Panchali. 2 hour long. At first I wondered whether it would be endurable for the full time - after all, its a 2 hour long film of the 1950's, that too in bengali. After watching so many movies in the hostel room, we had lost one thing for sure - patience. We just couldn't watch something boring for long.

The movie started and we were lost in it. The emotions and the life of the village was so well captured, you just didn't want the film to end. It was a mesmerizing experience.

Last year I had read Pather Panchali - Song of the Little Road in english. Bibhutibhushan had an amazing power of flowering hope where there seems to be the dryness of despair. Let me brief you a bit of history behind the movie as well as its legendary director, Satyajit Ray.

Pather Panchali - the movie- was directed by Satyajit Ray. Ray had no prior experience of film making. He began collecting technicians and finally managed to coax Subrata Mitra into becoming the cinematographer and Bansi chandra gupta as art director.

The story deals with the life of Harihar Roy and the tragedies which befall him in his life. It was easy for Ray or maybe Bibhutibhushan to tell this as a tale of woe. What they do, in fact, is the opposite - They project it as a tale of hope- independent of the tragedies that befall them.

I think it is impossible to write or describe the emotions that envelop the each character - Apu, Durga, Thakurani, Sorbojoya and Harihar with their neighbours - a gem of a movie.

Make sure you dont miss this one.