Summary
The film's title, Pather Panchali, translates into English as "The Song of the Road," and the story is based on a novel by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee. A song plays on the sitar as the film begins. We see a woman tending to a plant and then bowing her head in prayer, before noticing a girl in the nearby forest who she scolds for stealing fruit from her family. The girl runs through the forest, but when she sees a woman walking by, crouches, before escaping by running away.
The girl goes into a walled home and puts some of her stolen fruit in a basket, then pours some water into a bowl. After she's done this, she goes over to a basket and one-by-one pulls out several kittens.
We once again see the woman who saw the girl stealing wringing out laundry and complaining that with no gate to the orchard, thieves can just wander in. She complains that the girl is a daughter of Hari, and "won't leave a single fruit on the tree." The girl's mother, Sarbajaya, stands nearby, listening to the conversation, looking distressed.
When Sarbajaya pulls a bucket with water from the well, a woman working with her tells her that she shouldn't do so in her condition, but she insists.
The scene shifts and we see the young girl sitting with an older woman who is eating. The older woman turns to the girl, whose name is Durga, and tells her she should have saved some food for her. Sarbajaya calls to Durga and asks to talk to her. Reluctantly, Durga goes to Sarbajaya, who asks whether she stole anything from her aunt's garden. As the older woman watches, Durga pulls out a piece of fruit and Sarbajaya tells her to bring it back to her aunt, then come and sweep.
We see the older woman spitting some of her beverage out, then going to talk to Sarbajaya. Sarbajaya tells the woman, whose name is Indir Thakrun, that she is spoiling Durga by eating the fruit Durga brings her. "You think you can do as you please, living with us," Sarbajaya says, and continues to scold her, threatening to throw her out if she doesn't stop stealing. As Sarbajaya rants, complaining that she's housed Indir for eight years, Indir walks away.
Indir goes into a nearby building and grabs a bag, which she throws out the door and onto one of the kittens. She rants and leaves the premises with a bag, as Sarbajaya watches, resigned. Indir wanders into the forest, but Durga runs to her and tries to stop her from leaving. "Let her go, Durga," Sarbajaya yells, and Durga wanders back home. She sweeps the courtyard as her mother ordered.
That night, we see Durga in bed next to one of the kittens. Her father, Hari, wanders around in a hallway, looking outside expectantly. We see Sarbajaya lying down with a pained expression on her face, as two women watch over her. She has had a baby.
The next day, we see Durga and Indir wandering back to the home, and Indir tells everyone that she's been at Raju's. "Then this morning I heard about Hari's new baby," Indir says, coming inside to meet the new baby. Sarbajaya is lying with her new baby, and Indir smiles at him, crying, as Durga stands nearby.
Later, Indir sits beside a hammock where the new baby is sleeping, singing a song. Sarbajaya cooks and Hari asks what she's cooking. She sarcastically tells him she is cooking a feast, and he asks why they cannot eat that way to celebrate the new baby boy. "What about money?" Sarbajaya says, and Hari tells her he's starting a new job in the next month, managing the accounts of a landowner named Ray. Sarbajaya is concerned about it, but Hari is confident that he will make enough money from that and from being a priest until "something better comes along."
Sarbajaya notes that they have had two good months, with the birth of a son and a new job, and Hari agrees that this is why they should "celebrate his birth in style" and spend a little money. "It's good for our prestige," he says. Sarbajaya looks concerned, thinking that Hari is often cheated and that Ray will take advantage of her husband. He says, "They say my brother owed them money when he died. The orchard paid off his debts."
Sarbajaya discusses the fact that they would be more financially secure if they owned the orchard, and frets about the fact that they get so angry when Durga steals some fruit. Hari insists that he is a poet and playwright, and that he has a plan to write innovative plays and poems that will become popular by virtue of their originality.
Sarbajaya agrees that because he is a writer and scholar, he will be respected in the village, as Durga wanders in and sits on her father's lap. Hari talks about the fact that he comes from a family of writers and scholars and he will keep the tradition alive. "In two years, we'll be living comfortably, no more debt," he says.
We see Indir rocking the newborn baby in a hammock and singing to him. Then the scene shifts to show Sarbajaya waking up her son, Apu, who is now old enough to to go to school. She asks Durga, who is a teenager now, to help Apu get ready for school. Durga shakes her brother, then pulls back the blanket over him and forces his eye open. He jolts up and smiles at his sister. The scene shifts and we see him cleaning his teeth with his finger, then getting his hair combed by Durga, then taking a big gulp of milk.
Durga and Apu walk to school.
Analysis
Pather Panchali is a story about a family in India enduring the everyday existence of poverty. From the start, we see a young girl scrounging together food, stealing fruit, and running through a forest, hiding when she must. While the scenario is at its core a difficult one, the film seeks to find in it a certain kind of unexpected beauty. While young Durga must struggle to piece together an existence for her struggling family, she does so with a glint in her eye, and the viewer is meant to be immediately charmed by her innocent smile and sense of possibility.
Director Satyajit Ray uses various cinematic techniques to pull the viewer into Durga's perspective in the beginning. For instance, when she is running through the forest and spies someone nearby, she hides by crouching down in a clearing. Ray frames the child in a tight close-up, eyes wide and expectant. In this shot, the viewer is pulled into Durga's plight, waiting for what will happen next, empathizing with Durga's hope that she will not be apprehended.
Our close association with Durga continues when she goes back to her home. We see her put some stolen fruit in a bowl, then take a bowl for water. Her everyday tasks are outlined in close-up. At one point, she reaches into a large basket to pull out some kittens, and when she first puts her hand in, the camera is situated within the basket, with its perspective turned towards her smiling face. This photographic detail lets us in on Durga's innocent joy in being at home.
Another major part of the film is Ravi Shankar's score. Ravi Shankar is an Indian sitar player who became popular in the United States in the 1960s and 70s and he is an Indian music icon. The upbeat and expressive sitar score gives a sense of momentum to the narrative and further aligns us with Durga's story in the first few moments, and with the story of her family.
In this beginning section, we see a tension between the younger and older generations and the middle-aged members of the family. While Hari and Durga's aunt disapprove of Durga's stealing and reckless attitude, Durga believes that she is justified in stealing the fruit and giving it to her old aunt, Indir. Indir, likewise, is happy to take the gifts that Durga has to give her, and sees no problem with Durga's mischief. Thus, poverty is a humiliating slog for certain members of the family, while for others—who are less responsible for earning money—it is more innocent, simply the context for their lives.
