Pather Panchali - BFI Film Classics Author:Vani K. Borooah, Vidya Borooah Satyajit Ray is one of the most revered of film directors: Pather Panchali (1955) remains one of the greatest directing debuts. The first Indian film to attract widespread attention in Europe and America, it is the first installment in what was to become known, along with Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1958), as the "Apu ... more »trilogy." In Pather Panchali, Apu is a young boy living with his parents, sister, and elderly aunt in a village in Bengal, against a background of poverty. Influenced by the films of Renoir and inspired by Italian neo-realism, it is a film in which the small details of daily life take on a universal significance. Vidya Borooah traces the struggle Ray, a commercial artist and illustrator, faced in making the film and the talent and perseverance he brought to the task. She outlines the success he enjoyed in his parallel career as a writer and addresses his sometimes controversial reputation in India. She argues that the film is a lyrical, humanist masterpiece that reveals that from the beginning Ray was a master in the art of cinema.« less