Just perfect...

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

A real masterpiece indeed in every aspect: atmosphere, interpretation, dramatic stoutness of the plot and a remarkable gallery of authentic characters. In West Bengal (India) a poor family lives in a rural village: father, mother, son, daughter and an old almost invalid aunt. Money is scarce and debts pour. The father decides to leave for the city to get a better job. Daily life is shown in a very realistic detailed way. Everything is really dramatic and tragedy ends by falling upon the rest of the family, pushing the man who had come back meanwhile to leave the village and head for the city with his family. This is one of those movies you must decidedly not to miss.

Off late i have stopped writing about films because my perspective has progressed that films are not an essential and valuable service, apart from non outdoor entertainment provided which is required to have healthy mind. Also, films are one sided and not two way as people on screen and behind keep exhibiting their talent and we the viewers have no participation (example in sports-Tennis or Chess is two sided). But recently got inspired to come back into my favorite arena-(parallel) movies(commonly/colloquially known as non song movies, award cinema, art film, documentary, slow movies, elite film festival audience movie) after getting inspired from a TV show accidentally i watched while changing channel, where Indian film director told that his favorite personality is Satyajit Ray(a veteran with Oscar and Bharat Ratna to his credit). While saying there was a special spark in his eyes. Then i came back to this movie called Pather Panchali - Song of the little road(1955) which was released 61 years ago(was in development hell for 3 years indeed), which is Mr.Ray's first movie with no experience in films except for watching, analyzing and discussing them. Unresisted to watch the movie despite the criticism on Rays movie as selling poverty abroad, lack of modernism,melodramatic and slow.Needless to say, movie is sourced to a literature as like any parallel movie should be. The film is into 5 characters of lower middle class family set in rural India. Rays movie has deeper touch with realism, story being natural and so the characters(in simple-the style is into absorbing story and characters strongly, parallel movie trademark). His style is more focused on characters. Its a chilling experience and a break from blood and gore and over romantic, repeat artificial routine movies in recent and past trend. Characters moments of living life as a human being is captured in close shots which is overwhelming. The boys reaction to his sisters beating and making-up with a mustache as a man after watching a theater performance and enjoying the rain with his sister is close to heart. Not to miss the deepness of Apu's love to sister when the movie ends he throws away the beads(which his sister stole and got beaten) to protect her reputation.The end of movie is heart breaking to be not in touch with the family we enjoyed overseeing while they are living. The chilling experience is deep because of the family living in a natural surrounding-lovely nature ambiance. People who have suffered lack of humanity in real life will enjoy this movie of 2 hours and 6 minutes for sure. Fiction seated in realism some or most of the times is purely enjoyable because we already built a stage(as we can closely match the realism in our life) to launch a fiction on top of it.

Authentic account of the life of a poor, rural Indian family's life and hardships during a few year's time. Universal in theme but doesn't really get gripping until the final 15 min's during a memorable rain storm. Feels almost like a student project in its utter simplicity, technical limitations and primitive montage storytelling... which at times makes it a bit hard to follow in exactly what's going on (some bits are just frame filling and have no cause-and-effect whatsoever). I read after watching it that the father is a priest, and that it's supposed to be set in the early 1900's... gee - good to know, because the movie itself certainly doesn't tell me so! But most of the time it's just unclear if we have a main character: The mother? The daughter? No, apparently (again, after reading more about it afterward) it's supposed to be Apu, the son - which is weird since he honestly doesn't get more attention - OR personal character development than anyone else!I badly want to be more generous (like when you have to be nice about commenting a small kid's poor, ugly doodle drawings) because of its earnestness and alleged historical influence/importance to Indian cinema. But I can't - because it's simply not good enough. It's more an exotic rarity/half-documentary than being a particularly good movie. Do I feel like watching the sequels? Not much.4/10 from Ozjeppe.

I love foreign films because they tell the truth of the human condition unlike Hollywood-studio movies that usually sugar-coat life. Foreign films like The 400 Blows, Summer, Ikiru, Wild Strawberries, Early Spring, Late Autumn--all had a profound effect on me. They were like the independent films of today.I should like Pather Panchali, but I didn't. Yes, it told the truth of the human condition. Yes, it had beautiful cinematography. Yes, it had an effective soundtrack. But that was it. It didn't have anything else. Let me put it this way--it didn't emotionally move me like the above- mentioned films. Why? Probably because of a lack of character development. The father is hardly even in the film. The mother is a witch to her daughter. The aunt is a caricature of an old woman who means well. Same goes for the daughter. The son comes late in the film and basically copies whatever the daughter does. The neighbors are like the bad people in a chorus of a Greek tragedy. How can anyone be emotionally moved by characters like these?! They were all pretty much one-dimensional. And to top all that off--there was no plot! Well, I wasn't surprised to see that because how can you have a plot when you have only static characters. I do not recommend this film.