Pather Panchali Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

Pather Panchali Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 7, 2015

Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali" (1955) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include new video interviews with actors Shampa Srivastava and Soumitra Chatterjee; new video interview with Satyajit Ray's camera operator Soumendu Roy; excerpts from the documentary film "The Song of the Little Road"; and more. The release also arrives with a 44-page illustrated booklet featuring Tettence Rafferty's essay "Every Common Sight"; Satyajit Ray's storyboards for Pather Panchali; Girish Shambu's essay "Behind the Universal"; and notes about the 4K restoration of The Apu Trilogy. In Bengali, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Apu

Note: Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali is part of Criterion's The Apu Trilogy three-disc Blu-ray box set.

There is simplicity and calmness in the visuals that remind of the work of the great Italian neorealists. The viewer is left with the impression that life simply happens before the camera -- people follow daily routines and rituals that make their existence meaningful.

The film is set in a remote village in Bengal and follows closely a small family trying to make ends meet. The head of the family, Harihar (Kanu Bannerjee), is a free-spirited poet who is convinced that it is only a matter of time before his talent is recognized, but he is so focused on his work that he has essentially abandoned it. The mother, Sarbojaya (Karuna Bannerjee), occasionally confronts him and tries to make him understand that she can’t raise alone their daughter Durga (Uma Das Gupta) and son Apu (Subir Banerjee), but appears to have accepted that he isn’t going to change. She must also take care of their elderly aunt (Chunibala Devi), who does not always agree with the way she treats Durga and Apu.

A small incident seriously frustrates Sarbojaya, and she makes the aunt feel unwanted. Soon after, she quietly leaves the family. Then Harihar leaves after he is forced to seek work in a different region. During the monsoon season, Durga also falls seriously ill.

Alone and with limited resources, Sarbojaya struggles to keep the family together. Eventually, when Harinar returns, a decision is made to leave the village and move to the closest city where life has a completely different rhythm.

Pather Panchali was Bengali master Satyajit Ray’s directorial debut. In 1955, a year after Ray completed it, the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received rave reviews and won multiple awards.

The strength of the film is in its ability to capture the raw beauty of life without resorting to melodrama. The film welcomes the viewer into the reality of Apu’s family, and then makes it incredibly easy to sense the uncertainty that defines it. Various relationships are carefully observed, but the focus of attention is actually on the way people embrace life. (The exact same approach toward storytelling is present in the classic neorealist films of Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Giuseppe De Santis, Luchino Visconti, and Carlo Lizzani).

Nature has a key role in the film. It is captured in ways that force the viewer to think about the cycles of life and the decisions people make as they go through them. Death, in particular, is captured in an unusually bold (for an Indian film from the era) manner, suggesting that it is an inevitable culmination of life -- even when premature -- rather than a mystical event.

The film has a very distinctive soundtrack, but the music isn’t used to create and sustain a specific atmosphere. It blends with the sounds of nature and the existing rhythm of life. The soundtrack was created by the legendary Bengali sitar player and composer Ravi Shankar.

Pather Panchali Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"For Pather Panchali and Aparajito, new 4K digital transfers were created on an ARRISCAN film scanner with wet-gate technology from the Academy Film Archive's original negatives. Additional film elements used for Pather Panchali included a 35mm duplicate negative from the Academy Film Archive and a 35mm fine-grain from the BFI National Archive; additional film elements used for Aparajito included two 35mm duplicate negatives, from from the Academy Film Archive and one from the Harvard Film Archive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, noise management, jitter, and flicker.

4K digital scanning: L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna; Colorworks, Culver City, CA; Goldcrest, New York; Deluxe Digital, London.
Transfer supervisor and colorist: Lee Kline.
Additional color correction: Russell Smith."

Anyone who has previously seen Pather Panchali on DVD will be hugely impressed with the new 4K restoration. Indeed, the improved clarity and especially image depth now make it very easy to see details that are basically lost on previous releases of the film. It is easy to tell that plenty of work was done to rebalance the image as well -- the blacks and whites remain stable and there is a very healthy range of nuanced grays. Technical notes provided with the release state that because of extensive damage only 40 percent of the film was restored directly from the original negatives, but density actually remains quite consistent. There are only a few minor shifts and they never become distracting. Grain is retained as best as possible and there are no traces of problematic sharpening adjustments. Image stability is very good. There are a few uneven transitions, but the edges of the frame remain solid and there isn't any warping. Lastly, debris, cuts, damage marks, scratches, and other imperfections have been very carefully removed and as a result the film looks strikingly healthy. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Pather Panchali Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Bengali LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The soundtrack by Ravi Shankar has an important role in the film, but the music is not used to enhance the reality in which Apu's family exists. Separation is good, but there are a few segments where some thinning in the high-frequencies becomes obvious and some light clarity fluctuations emerge. However, I have to speculate that the effects are due to the manner in which the film was shot as well as the quality of the surviving elements. There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report in our review.

Pather Panchali Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Ravi Shankar - presented here are excerpts from the documentary film The Song of the Little Road (2003), in which the legendary sitar player and composer Ravi Shankar recalls his interactions with Satyajit Ray and discusses his directing methods as well as the music he composed for the films in The Apu Trilogy. The documentary was produced and directed by Priyanka Kumar. In English, not subtitled. (6 min, 1080i).

• Sounebdu Roy - in this video interview, Soumendu Roy, who assisted Satyajit Ray during the shooting of Pather Panchali and became his main camera operator, discusses the production history of the film, the shooting process (the shoot took place in the remote village of Boral), the unique treatment of light and the important role of nature in the film, Subrata Mitra's lensing, etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in 2013. In Bengali, with optional English subtitles. (13 min, 1080p).

• Shampa Srivastava - in this brand new video interview, actress Shampa Srivastava, who plays the young Durga (credited as Runki Banarjee), remembers her interactions with her mother in front of the camera, the various instructions Satyajit Ray gave her, how different sequences were shot, etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in 2015. In English, not subtitled. (17 min, 1080p).

• Soumitra Chatterjee - in this video interview, actor Soumitra Chatterjee, who plays the adult Apu in Apur Sansar and appeared in a number of other films directed by Satyajit Ray, discusses the cinema scene in India during the 1950s and how the great Bengali director changed it. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in 2013. In Bengali, with optional English subtitles. (8 min, 1080p).

• A Long Time on the Little Road - in 1957, Satyajit Ray wrote an article for Sight & Sound about the maing of Pather Pinchali. Soon after, film critic Gideon Bachmann recorded the director reading his account aloud. The audio recording is presented here. In English, not subtitled. (15 min, 1080p).

• Booklet - 44-page illustrated booklet featuring Tettence Rafferty's essay "Every Common Sight"; Satyajit Ray's storyboards for Pather Panchali; Girish Shambu's essay "Behind the Universal"; and notes about the 4K restoration of The Apu Trilogy.

Pather Panchali Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Satyajit Ray's directorial debut, Pather Panchali, has plenty in common with the classic films of the Italian neorealists -- it effectively captures the raw energy and beauty of life without ever resorting to melodrama. Pather Panchali has been recently restored in 4K and looks nothing short of extraordinary. There is no doubt in mind that the new restoration will remain the film's definitive presentation. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.