Pather Panchali
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VHS Movie Reviews of Pather Panchali
Movie Review: The song of India illuminated like scenes in a pageant
Summary: 5 Stars
Some reviewer writes that this is an over-rated film. If anything this is an under-rated film. Because this is made in Bengali, very few people in India can appreciate this film far less the international audience. Bengali films and that too in 1950s were not promoted, not properly subtitled with the result that this film is confined to art-house audiences in India and elsewhere. I have seen Citizen Kane and let me tell you this is comparable if not better.Ray is criticized on 2 fronts by 2 different sets of people. Some people denigrate him as having sold India's poverty for awards. Others castigate him from glorifying poverty and for given a rose tinted view of poverty.Well you cant please everyone.Ray is not a social reformer, he is an artist with celluloid. So while his films are not meant to stir you into "action", he also does not succumb to making traditional Indian escapist song fests so that everyone can feel "good".
This isnt a film--its a dream. It is about an Indian boy, who despite the death,sorrow,poverty he encounters at every stage in his life manages to keep his innocence and his dreams intact. It is about the courage to dream and the indomitable force of life. People who think this is dark and depressing miss out on the heart of Pather Panchali and on the Apu trilogy. On the contrary this is the greatest celebration of life ever captured on celluloid.
And the haunting background score, the beautiful imagery, the rains falling on the pond, the necklace vanishing into the vegetation over the water......oh if this is not poetry then tell me what is ?
See this....just see this.Thats all I can say.
Movie Review: ...
Summary: 5 Stars
so i had to say something.this is an absolutely beautiful film. the forests in the film are beautiful. the music by ravi shanker fits everything in the film flawlessly.
my favorite character is the grandmother. the presentation of this lady is beyond any character i've seen before in cinema. what she is all about captures your heart. and the daughter captures your heart. then the mother, father, and son.
this film is about karma. the family's actions bring about the first tragedy, the grandmother's fate. so you know what will happen. fate is sealed. the father is pursuing the wrong things, and will pay a karmic price.
this simple tale is a tale about spirituality and karma. because of the moral taught, its metaphorical significance, it is a great work of art, as great as any masterpiece.
it has to be one of the greatest films ever conceived. it's in my top five films, perhaps my top three, and perhaps my favorite.
Movie Review: Overpraised, but full of good things.
Summary: 4 Stars
There has been a conspiracy in film histories, even in those that profess sympathy to non-American cinemas, to reduce Indian cinema to the populism of Bollywood and the humanism of Satyajit Ray. It is when you see audacious films like Ghitak's 'The Cloud-Capped Star' that Ray's conservatism becomes apparent, his stylistic restraint, his formal totalising, his apoliticism.This is not to say that 'Pather' isn't full of good things - the move from social realism to the mystical; the montages of nature; the Gothic structure leading to the most harrowing storm in cinema; the space for comedy and play amidst all the poverty; the startling introduction of Apu. By all means start with Ray; just remember he's not the whole story.
Movie Review: Revelation
Summary: 5 Stars
The story builds to scenes that will leave no good person unchanged. A heirloom of humanity. The black and white depiction of the wood is only equalled by Kurosawa. Personally I think it has the greatest appearance of a train in film history.Movie Review: Pure cinema!
Summary: 5 Stars
A precious gem of a film, this masterpiece from India clearly depicts what cinema is all about. An exercise in prose through dumbfounding imagery, ensemble acting with an exceptional performance of the lady who played "Auntie". This film about life's cycle set amid India's squalor haunts me to this day. The scene where Apu finds his sister's stolen necklace and tosses it out in the water clears the line between honesty and his love for his sister. What a sublime way to depict humanity in cinema. Pather Panchali is the best of the Satyajit Ray trilogy.