On the night of the storm when tragedy strikes, the roof and the doors give way first.Īnd the Mukherjee house is a well built solid structure with a heraldic lion on the main gate. The doors and windows are rickety and worn out. It is crumbling, The kitchen and the cowshed need a new thatch. Harihar’s house is in sad need of repairs. They play, shriek with joy, and generally provide a backdrop to adult concerns. She too has a daughter, Bini.Īnd crowding the courtyards and the open spaces of village are numerous boys and girls. His wife is sympathetic to Sarbojaya and stands by her in periods of stress. But Ranu, the daughter of the house, and Durga, of same age, are close friends. She attempts to humiliate Sarbojaya, on every possible occasion making little Durga’s pranks devices for reminding her of her status. The prominent lady in this house is Shejobou who seems to have a running quarrel with Sarbojaya, all around the trivial issues created by little Durga. Harihar’s father had borrowed three hundred rupees from the Mukherjees and they have usurped Harihar’s fruit trees towards the repayment of the loan. The Mukherjees living in the big house are distant kin relations. The film investigates the change in inner relationships within this family.Īnd the relationship of this family with other families in the neighborhood. She keeps on the margin, very indulgent to the children, but never a part of the core. By custom, she has a claim on Harihar and has attached herself to this household. Pishi, her name is Indir, but everyone calls her Pishi ( father’s sister ). Apu, the son is born in the course of the film, whereas Durga dies in the course of the film. The main characters are Harihar, his wife Sarbojaya, and Durga, his daughter. How did Harihar Ray come to abandon his village home is what the film investigates. Harihar’s ancestors had lived here and thrived, but he cannot. Nischindipur is a remote village, tradition bound for generations, with a well set organisation. Around this thread the film weaves a design of characters, events and places in a manner which explores several seminal issues of Indian life. Pather Panchali is about Harihar Ray, a traditional Brahmin priest in the village of Nischindipur, in Bengal, who is unable to maintain his family and eventually has to leave for Banares in search of a better life. This, in fact, is the hallmark of all great fiction, its raison d’etre. It is a case of the world of fiction influencing our understanding of the world of reality. Pather Panchali makes us think and re-evaluate several frames of understanding of life with which we have grown up. It creates a total response, deeply emotional and highly contemplative. That it has a resemblance to the world we know increases its expressive strength. This world has to be understood in terms of its inner logic of elements and their relationships. The whole work creates a self-contained world. The village of Nischindipur, Harihar Ray, Durga, Apu, and the bamboo grove in which Pishi dies are the creation of the imagination of the director : they are parts of Satyajit Ray’s fiction. What will get into the film ( and be kept out of it ) is the decision of the director, taken on the basis of his expressive intentions. And then one necessarily starts thinking of the film as a structure.Īny film, considered as a work of Art, is made of elements of film language. Or, one could go beyond the casual response and think of the whole film and enquire into the why of it. Whatever the level of recalling to memory, the modifying influence of the film is self-evident. One may not talk of scenes, but themes or abstract values: the dynamics of a poverty-stricken family, or the genuine feel of a Bengali village or the authentic Indianness of the mentality of the characters. Or, for that matter, the sheer lyrical beauty of the dance of insects. Even amusement at the placing of the first raindrop on a bald head, or at the pranks of Apu dressing up like a prince and getting beaten up by Durga. The sheer terror of the night and helplessness at Durga’s death. One could recall individual scenes and reactions to them. Anyone who has seen Pather Panchali knows that the film is an experience that sinks deep within and becomes a part of one’s being.
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