Episode 74: PATHER PANCHALI

[devincf 102]

It's the classic of Indian cinema, and it's up for the Canon! Do you think the first entry in the Apu Trilogy belongs in the hall of eternity? And can you, unlike Amy and Devin, pronounce Satyajit Ray correctly?

 

Also: was this your first time watching the movie? If so, what did you think of it? Talk about it with us here.

[PatrickGaertner 17]

I would vote yes for Pather Panchali.

 

It was my first time seeing it, and my first ever forray into Indian cinema. It's a fascination slice of life from a culture I know next to nothing about, but the story it told was so universal and believable that I completely identified with it, and understood everything that was happening. The film practically felt like a documentary, it seemed so much like real-life and was just a beautiful film.

[JonHillman 40]

The first time I watched this, I expected to watch the trilogy over the course of three nights or even a week. As soon as each film finished, I immediately put the next on, and this has been one of my favorite series of films ever since. I'm seriously wondering what kind of cold bastard could even vote no on this. A very hardy yes from me, anyway.

[phred2321 57]

Yepyepyep I saw it this past fall at my local theater and was blown away. Great movie 100% Canon I hope we get to the rear of the trilogy down the road

[LucasSmith 3]

yes, definitely in the canon. the whole trilogy.

 

also, 'historocity' isn't a word. it's 'historicity'.

[AndyFritz 12]

I vote no.

Pather Panchali's boring. There's not even any songs in it.

[LucasSmith 3]

I vote no.

Pather Panchali's boring. There's not even any songs in it.

 

doesn't it make more sense to criticize a film for what it is, than what it isn't? i get 'boring' -that's fine- but it's not a musical, so your disappointment ultimately lies with your personal expectations, not anything the film fails to deliver on.

[JimmyFrohman 3]

A yuge yes. I put Pather Panchali on Thursday night as my "homework," and watched the entire trilogy that night. Then I was late for work, and spent the whole day Friday thinking reading about Ray. Thank you for this!

[Chet Hiatt 1]

This is the film that got me to finally register for the message board.

 

Yes! I saw this film in a college class a few years ago. It's one of those movies you want to show your friends and family, but it has been so unavailable until now. Devin and Amy, I might have missed it, but I don't remember you mentioning the score, recorded by pre-international fame Ravi Shankar which really enhances the authentic feel of the film. The other two films are fantastic as well, but they don't have the same joyful elements that this one does.

[bri-witched 60]

Thanks for the shoutout!

 

This was my first time seeing Pather Panchali and only my second time watching anything from Indian Cinema (ignoring some Shahrukh Khan films). I really liked it! The characters are multi-dimensional and above all I just enjoyed spending time with them. And it looked gorgeous too-the rain scene in particular was magical. I'm definitely voting yes.

[Threshold 93]

Yep! Real good insight into the life of these people that I would have no idea otherwise.

Also Auntie is the real MVP

[NathanGordon 1096]

Many people think Indian cinema begins and ends with Bollywood; I was one of those people until a friend introduced me to the wonderful films of Satyajit Ray. Of course this film deserves a place in the canon.

 

On another note, I hope this signals a more international perspective for the future of this series. I know there's a vast cinematic landscape to cover, but I'd rather hear Amy (and Devin, I guess) discuss Herzog or Antonioni instead of a hot take on Superman v Batman.

[AlexChristianLovendahl 34]

I am not sure I can vote "Yes!" more firmly than for Pather Panchali. I may put six or seven films ahead of it, but almost all have been more commonly accepted as movies to know, either due to recency or mainstream acceptance. Pather Panchali is the movie which defines the role of reevaluating the canon, and I think it should be its crown jewel.

 

The most yes I can vote.

[maw447 9]

Thank you so much for turning me on to this film. Foreign cinema has always been a big hole for me, and I had no idea what I was in for when I started it. Like Devin, I started it less than enthusiastically, but I was hooked in minutes. Durga and her mother are two of the most captivating female characters (or any characters) I've seen in any movie. It definitely reminded me of Linklater, and I feel confident in saying that Ray has joined him as one of my favorites filmmakers. A definite and enthusiastic yes for the canon.

[Cronopio 127]

Since I first saw it when I was growing up in Mexico City back in the 1970's, this has been in my own personal canon. So I'm going to vote yes, obviously.

[KickMuncher3 46]

I vote yes. It's cinematic impact (especially on Indian cinema) is enough to get it into the canon. I watched it for the first time this week and was really taken with the amazing filmmaking. I wasn't aware that this film was part of the Apu trilogy and i was surprised because I really felt like Durga was the protagonist through most of the movie. She was by far my favourite character.

 

I also loved the mother character. One of my favourite moments is after Durga's death when the mother is sitting staring into space and a little girl with a gift of food approaches her and refers to her as "auntie." I feel like it shows how she's become the same kind of moocher she hated Auntie for being. Really great film.

[Head Spin 112]

Easiest yes since I've been a listener. I like to think I cast a wide net when it comes to choosing films to watch, but I may never have gotten around to this one without the podcast. I'm often grateful for the discussion this show creates in the forums and between the hosts, but this week I'm grateful for the breadth of its selections.

 

This was just a very special viewing experience. And I don't know that I have much to say that Devin and Amy didn't say better, so I'll just speak to a few elements I loved instead of gushing at length. (EDIT: Whoops)

 

The hosts talked about how universal the film feels; Pather Panchali has a very strong sense of setting, but feels like a tale that has and is happening all over the world. I agree with them, but even as the film feels universal it expresses such a pride for India. It's depicting what would be the worst part of any nation, but it luxuriates in the setting without glorifying poverty. Probably my favorite shot of the film is when it shoots the kids following the candy-seller through the reflection of the pond that they're walking along. It captures the figures, somewhat, but enjoys the treeline and the pond itself at the same time. The film features brief asides to the bustling town nearby, but it doesn't just shoot it in contrast to their dilapidated estate; the film stops with Apu to watch the folk play performed that was heralded earlier in the film. Now I'm as dumb a white male as it gets, so I'm punching above my weight here, but the film just effuses this infectious Indian pride to me. It doesn't even go out of its way to glorify it, as naturalistic as the film is, but I finished this film ready to devour more Indian cinema. I'm not always confident firsthand about historical relevance - I don't do much research before I vote - but you can just feel the kick that inspired a generation of Indian filmmakers.

 

I'm probably not alone in coming to a mid-1950s piece of foreign film with certain expectations as to what I'm going to see. And Jesus H. did I not expect a movie I only knew as the beginning of a trilogy about the life of an Indian man to be so female! It's great! Apu is featured, and the movie provides the context of his early growth, but this film is either about three great original female characters or the same great character, a cipher for an impoverished woman's experience, at three different points in her life. Each reads as unique and fresh, but also as women who have no other choice but to be what they are, separated only as points on a timeline. And I don't know which is the greatest creation. Which is the most heartbreaking?

 

The hosts were spot on in calling it not sentimental. It's neither cold nor warm, and it lays plain the lives of the characters while finding a kind of emotionally-neutral beauty in it all. And maybe that's why I was so unprepared to be so heartbroken by it. Durga is such a vital character. She is alive on that screen in a way I don't know if I have ever seen before. It never occurred to me that she could die. And the movie plays it so straight. She doesn't die at the climax of a dramatic structure. Her doom is presented in maybe the most innocuously beautiful shot of the entire film: her and Apu huddling together, smiling, in the crook of a tree peacefully while she shares her sari to keep him dry. It's just another moment among many.

 

This movie doesn't even allow us the easy narrative satisfaction of hate for its full length. Once the family is in real trouble the miserly wife of the orchard owner softens to them all, (another situation where the movie deliberately omits a man from the film - it cuts away when her husband is summoned - in order to keep the focus on the women of the story). The real villain of the film seems to be the husband. It's his decision to eschew a livable life as a priest to follow the dreams he dreamt for himself and his family. In the end he returns, and speaks to the elders, and he, too, is hard to blame. He was spineless, but he was willing to try and break the cycle to elevate his family to a better life. It's in that speech to the elders that the scope of the heartbreak becomes clear. If there a more devastating line in cinema than "All my plans came to nothing," I'm not sure I've heard it. We watched years of these lives pass, and all of it came to nothing. Durga's intelligence, warmth, and drive all came to nothing. Maybe it never could. Indir died a beggar among paupers in the forest, having exhausted the goodwill she needed to survive. It all came to nothing. Sarbajaya worked for years like a possessed woman, starving, stealing food to keep her family afloat, and it all came to nothing. Harihar left his family for months at a time to try and elevate their lot, and it all came to nothing. At the film's end Apu is more than a boy, he's the last hope for a generation of hopes and effort to have come to something. But as heartbreaking as the movie is, I don't think it ever despairs. It didn't all come to nothing; it lived and died. Pather Panchali wasn't waiting for the payoff; It was living the experience. I feel like I lived it too.

[ManishMathur 33]

Hard yes.

 

I love Bollywood completely unironically (and cringed at Devin's description of it--that was accurate like 25 years ago). Parallel cinema is wonderful and so is Ray. I also love Mahanagar.

 

Pather Panchali is a great movie, and it's universal. I welcome the discussions of Aparajito and Apu Sansar

 

The funny thing, when I saw the restoration in the theater last year I was the only person of color there. White people front to back in the theater.

[Head Spin 112]

Hard yes.

 

I love Bollywood completely unironically (and cringed at Devin's description of it--that was accurate like 25 years ago). Parallel cinema is wonderful and so is Ray. I also love Mahanagar.

 

Pather Panchali is a great movie, and it's universal. I welcome the discussions of Aparajito and Apu Sansar

 

The funny thing, when I saw the restoration in the theater last year I was the only person of color there. White people front to back in the theater.

 

Are there any Bollywood films you'd recommend to a novice?

[ManishMathur 33]

 

Are there any Bollywood films you'd recommend to a novice?

 

Absolutely! Johnny Gaddaar (a really stylish thriller) Veer Zaara (what I consider one of the best romantic epics in recent times), Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara (a yuppie coming of age story about 3 guy friends), Neerja (a harrowing true story about a flight attendant dealing with a hijacking), Band Baaja Baaraat (a modern rom-com that is a capsule of New Delhi culture). A lot of novices like Lagaan, which was the last Indian movie nominated for an Oscar.

 

Those are all relatively new. For older movies I'd recommend Sholay (THE Western for India), Mughal-e-Azam, Mother India, Pyaasa (all 3 are revered dramas).

 

Some of these are available on American Netflix, iTunes or YouTube. Also you can check your library. Unfortunately India sucks with maintaining older films so it's rare to find special editions of older movies. And Criterion has yet to realize that Indian cinema is more than Satyajit Ray.

[ManishMathur 33]

Also, Piku, which is a beautiful slice of life story about a dad and a daughter. And Devdas is melodrama, but in the Douglas Sirk exploring class and inventive camerawork way.

[Head Spin 112]

Thanks man! I appreciate the variety. Piku, Sholay, Johnny Gaddaar, and Mughal-e-Azam are shooting right to the top of my list.

[ManishMathur 33]

Thanks man! I appreciate the variety. Piku, Sholay, Johnny Gaddaar, and Mughal-e-Azam are shooting right to the top of my list.

 

My pleasure

[sjmills 0]

God no. Why would a movie that hardly anybody has ever heard of be in the canon?