Pather Panchali

Extremely touching in its simplicity, emotional range and visual beauty, it's no wonder it became the first Indian film to achieve widespread international acclaim and establish Ray as a master filmmaker.

Beautiful, sometimes funny, and full of love, it brought a new vision of India to the screen.

It is a pastoral poem dappled with the play of brilliant images and strong, dark feelings, a luminous revelation of Indian life in language that all the world can understand.

Fresh as a daisy after all these years, Satyajit Ray's 1955 spellbinder comes underpinned by a tumultuous Ravi Shankar sitar and paints a ground's-eye portrait of life in an impoverished Bengali village.

Satyajit Ray's beautiful first feature.

Film justly won the 'most human document award' at the 1956 Cannes Film Fest, unveiling a mature film talent in director Satyajit Ray.

Incredibly, Ray had never directed a scene before Pather Panchali, Mitra had never shot one, and the children who were cast hadn't even been tested. Just how this team of novices fashioned one of cinema's enduring classics is a miraculous mystery.

The rewards are rich and unforgettable.

Satyajit Ray's glowingly hardscrabble debut

...truly one of the most delicate, humble and deeply felt movies I've ever seen.

There is a faith in the art form here, a pure, loving, embracing faith that really restores my own faith in movies.