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Restored Pather Panchali enthralls cinegoers
Fifty years after the theatrical release, a restored version of the classic has been screened for the first time in India.
Fifty years after the theatrical release of Pather Panchali, a restored version of director Satyajit Ray's immortal classic has been screened for the first time in India.
Hundreds of avid cinegoers thronged Siri Fort Auditorium here last night to catch a glimpse of Ray's debut film, the centrepiece of the seventh Osian's Cinefan film festival currently underway in the capital.
Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), also honoured at the Cannes festival this year, was restored by the Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection (FASC) with the help of the American Academy of Motion Picture archives.
FASC Director Dilip Basu, credited with restoring 17 films from Satyajit Ray's oeuvre, pointed out that negatives of some of Ray's films, including Pather Panchali, were damaged in a fire but had been restored with painstaking care.
"This is the first time the restored film is being shown in India," Basu said.
The film should be seen by every Indian, Basu added, quoting the words of Japanese filmmaker Akiro Kurosawa, who had once declared "if one hasn't seen 'Pather Panchali' and other movies in the Apu trilogy, that person has not seen the sun or the moon."
"Ray's films are also being shown in Korea, Stuttgart (Germany), France, and Italy right now. I hope this will help propel many more screenings in India," he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Lok Sabha Speaker and President of Ray Foundation's Advisory Council Somnath Chatterjee said one of the organisation's objectives was the setting up of a Satyajit Ray museum in Kolkata.
He was a master storyteller, litterateur, graphic artist... All his films bore the stamp of his versatility," Chatterjee said, adding Ray's films evoked intense emotions even today.
During his speech, Chatterjee also praised organisers for "facilitating the creation of an enlightened audience."
Produced by the West Bengal government in 1955, the black-and-white film is the reel version of Bibhutibhushan Banerjee's novel Pather Panchali. It was the first of Ray's Apu trilogy which also includes films Aparajito and Apur Sansar.
Set to the haunting music of Pandit Ravi Shankar, the two-hour long film is the story of siblings Apu and Durga and their life in a remote village in Bengal. The film essentially deals with a poor family's struggle for survival but the sequences of Apu and his elder sister exploring their little world are the highlights of the film.
Sanju Surendran, a sophomore at Pune's Film and Television Institute, said the restored version had made the print "lighter and much more clear."
"Though I had seen the film earlier, this time I was admiring Ray's choice of shots and camera angles," the aspiring filmmaker told PTI.
According to festival director Aruna Vasudev, four other films directed by the auteur - Seemabaddha, Mahanagar, Sonar Kella and Charulata - are also being screened during the ten-day film fest, which features 120 films from 35 countries including India.
For collegian Ratna Kaushik, watching 'Pather Panchali' had been the opportunity of a lifetime.
"I had read the English translation of Bibhutibhushan Banerjee's novel. But I feel that Ray's interpretation of the story is much more compelling and beautiful," she said.
Perhaps the only spanner in the works was thrown by Osian's Chairman Neville Tuli who announced that there would be no free tickets at the 2006 edition of the film festival.
"The free ride is over. No more free tickets from next year," Tuli said, much to the chagrin of film buffs and students in the audience.
