Pather Panchali - Song of the Road

I was in Class 8 when I had first read Bibhutibhushan Bandhopadhyay's "Song of the Road".A thick book! A translation! Back then I couldn't much read books in my Mother Tongue..But that translation was vivid enough to create the powerful images,powerful characters,the fraility of nineteenth-century poverty-stricken village in Bengal.One of the simplest and engaging story of all time.The pace,the characters,the narration so fluid..you are lost in the world of Durga & Apu.
I feel by the time a Bengali kid gains his senses,he knows of the two institutions- Rabindrabath Tagore & Satyajit Ray.We eat,drink,sleep,talk,argue their work.We are as passionate about them as we are of our Motherland.And with those gained senses the kid realises the masterwork "Pather Panchali".I remember my parents seeing it on the National Tv when I was a kid of 3-4 (i swear, i remember!!!) and the image that stayed with me was of the Sarbojaya's cottage in the storm and the rain dripping from the thatched roof...
And then till I watched it, I grew up on its stories,its achievements..how Ray made his first mark in the map of World Cinemas.I watched the movie first time in my Class X vaccations,and watched back to back the Trilogy- Apur sansar and Aparijito.
Though each one a class on its own,Pather Panchali is a magic.A story which though set in the rural Bengal had the power enough to touch chords with the audience worldwide. A movie made with enough struggles and financial crunches,its an image that any person who has seen it once can't forget.Like most of its audience,my favourite scene is the one in which Apu and Durga run in the fields of white Kash flowers when they see a train for the first time.A sad tale which never rests on its sadness and ends up on an hopeful note. It was the power of Ray's narration that spell bounded the world in its simplicity. Else for instance,how a person living in the riches of say,United States,feel for the frail characters in a rugged,rural,poverty-stricken Bengal..Its the beauty of Pather Panchali that it still remains a favourite with audience worldwide since 53 years of realease.
When I am having a day with my mood in an off-key there are certain images which rejuvenates me...Pather Panchali is one of those...
And as Sandip Ray,his son says of this landmark film,
"The film,as the name suggests,talks about the rhythm of life that turns victorious even in face of poverty,misery and death.Perhaps this is the reason the film has been able to stand the test of time."
And as the great Akira Kurosawa said of Ray's work,"To have not seen the films of Ray is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun."