![]() One can only imagine how Renoir would have received the film. Upon viewing De Sica’s monument to Italian neorealism, Ray was finally convinced that Pather Panchali, at long last, could become a reality. One film seen in Ray’s time in Britain that struck his heartstrings and would become the driving influence of Pather Panchali would be Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves. Ray would take Renoir’s advice to heart and would travel to Britain to study film for three months. Renoir admired how cinematic Ray’s thoughts were and encouraged Ray to study more on film and hoped to see - like his newfound friend - Pather Panchali become a reality. Ray worked as a location scout under Renoir and along the way outlined his vision for Pather Panchali. But the plot twist behind the film’s production came from an unexpected source: French director Jean Renoir ( Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game), who was shooting his film The River in India in the late 1940s. Given this information, Pather Panchali had no right to be one of the greatest films of all time, let alone even see the light of day. Ray (pronounced like in “rye bread”), who worked in advertising, had only $3,000 to direct and write this adaptation of Bibhutibushan Bandopadhyay’s novel of the same and - this being Ray’s debut film - he had to learn filmic techniques as the shooting went on (his cinematographer Subrata Mitra also took this hands-on crash course with Ray). Pather Panchali is instead Bengali cinema - which is instead centered around Calcutta and has been largely ignored, despite being the more artistic and substantive cousin to Bollywood. Bollywood is Hindi cinema shot primarily in Mumbai and is known for its lavishness, frequent musical interludes, financial success, and interchangeability. The film is NOT Bollywood - that is an erroneous label often used to describe the entirety of India’s film industry. If but for one film, India momentarily found itself at the center of attention in the world of cinema. Due to the fact Ray’s films are very difficult to find legally in both North America and even his home country of India, this viewing of Pather Panchali has been a long time in the making. Satyajit Ray is a filmmaker in which all cinephiles eventually encounter - some bide their sweet time to discover his works, some discover him more immediately. ![]() I have known of Pather Panchali, meaning, “Song of the Little Road” in English", just about as long a time. I have known the name of Satyajit Ray before becoming the classic film buff I am today. ![]()
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