Ray the Rockstar! (Part II)

Pather Panchali...

overwhelmingly beautiful...the imagery, the narration, and the soulful depths to which the camera could carry the human eye...and of course let's not forget the simple humour...subtle and yet very lifting...

simply love the way ray gives birth to hope everytime you feel let down by the miseries of poverty weighing down apu and his family...

and what a way to signify the birth of hope...tadpoles creating ripples as they sprint about in the water...water lillies swaying...durga planting a new sapling as she grows to see to new desires...and the finality of it with the lashing rain....and even as you begin to hope...it's that very rain that takes it away from you...and then the celebration of the human spirit which refuses to let go...there's always a new beginning...no matter what.

you have the watch the extent to which ray belives in continuity...for instance the first scene in which durga lifts kittens out of the pot to feed them water...they are there,frocliking...falling over each other...or just simply there... till the end of the whole sequence...
and the long cuts...awesome...and despite that you never really get bored...coz of the variety of shots he has used...and when he zooms in slowly to capture the sorrow or the excitement in the mother's face or Apu's wonder...

the humour is very subtle...and like i said...simple...whether it is the trumpet blower's quivering moustache...as apu looks up at him...or even the old aunt who is constantly bickering with the mother and keeps threatening to leave...her expressions are hilarious!

the musical score (composed by Ravi Shankar in a record time of 9 hours) proves to a fine accompaniment to the narrative...builds and lifts at times and at places...more than substitutes for missing dialogues...

If there was a dignified way to show human poverty...it was definitely Ray who could show it...so much so that the audience all over the world no matter how far away from the early years of the century and the dwellings of poverty they may be...they cannot help but empathise with the family...