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Pather PanchaliRating:
Release Date: 28 October, 2003 Retail Price: $29.95 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: |
Pather Panchali Reviews
Loss, Love, and Redemption
I'm sorry to see that as if this date Amazon has no copies of this film for sale. I hope this is temporary. It would be a shame if this film were not made available for people to own.
I have all three DVDs of the Apu trilogy. This, the first in the trilogy, is the best one, I think. Three of the major themes are the irrevocable nature of loss, the power of human love, and the simple but powerful ways we experience redemption.
Many reviews focus on the title character, Apu, yet this is also a powerful portrayal of various phases of women's lives: maiden, mother, and crone, if you will. Durga, the maiden, is often described as a petty thief, yet her acts often seem heroic to me and serve to underscore the pettiness and selfishness of her neighbors. Why should Durga have to steal guavas from the land that used to belong to her father? Why can't the neighbors share?
As for stealing the beads, Durga's desire for something pretty, while not so heroic, is perfectly understandable when one realizes how little Durga is appreciated in a family that dotes on Apu, the boy. Yet there are no villains in this film. All characters are fully rounded. The mother, who often seems cruel, is also a sympathetic character who tries to keep her pride in tact while descending deeper into poverty all the time.
The grandmother is, to me, the best character of the bunch. She's as mysterious as she is mischevious. The petty bickering between Durga's mother and grandmother doesn't show an absence of love but results from the pressures of day to day survival. The women, in fact, are woven into the same tapestry of life. In one brilliant shot, the mother is shown holding her weary back while the grandmother, bent from years of hardship and work, shuffles in the background. Life is hard and the inevitability of old age is just around the corner. How is one's hard work and sacrifice repaid? Are we destined to end up like Durga's grandmother, whom nobody seems to want? Nobody, save Durga, who has a pure heart and shows her love by bringing lovingly her hungry grandmother stolen guavas.
The people and situations are never sentimentalized, not even the death of the grandmother, whose body is discovered by Durga and Apu.
Yes, this is the story of Apu, a young boy, but it's also the story of the three main phases of women's lives. This film is rich visually and is one the viewer will think about for a long time. One of my all-time favorite films. PATHER PANCHALI is the best of the three, but THE WORLD OF APU doesn't miss this distinction by much.
Good visual drama
This film came recommended to me by several of my friends, so I felt compelled to see it. After watching the film, I am glad that I listened to them as this was a very good movie. Even though this is done with subtitles, I had no trouble following the story.
Although not really a draw back, this film is the first part of a trilogy, so the ending is more of a prelude to a beginning. The story is following a Brahmin family that has fallen on hard financial times. The ever optimistic father has trouble bringing enough money in to meet the needs of his family and keeping the ancestral home in good repair. Tragedy after tragedy besets them, which is the impetus for the ending of this movie (and beginning of the next).
In no part of this film did I have trouble following the filmmaker's work. The story kept me locked in and watching. I would highly recommend this film to others.
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