Apu's way to life: on the street

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Movie
German title Apu's way to life: on the street
Original title পথের পাঁচালী
(Pather Pā̃calī)
Country of production India
original language Bengali
Publishing year 1955
length 120 minutes
Rod
Director Satyajit Ray
script Satyajit Ray
production Satyajit Ray , Government of West Bengal
music Ravi Shankar
camera Subrata Mitra
cut Dulal Dutta
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
Apu's way into life: The invincible

Apu's way into life: On the street ( Bengali : পথের পাঁচালী , Pather Pā̃calī , translated: Song of the street ) is an Indian feature film by Satyajit Ray from 1955. It was based on a story by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay .

action

The life of a poor family in the Bengal countryside is told in an episodic dance and epic breadth . The father Harihar, the mother Sarbajaya, their daughter Durga and the old aunt Indira live on a property with two bungalows. The son Apu is born here.

Harihar is constantly without a steady income and sees his real destiny as a writer. Durga regularly steals fruit from the neighbors' plantations and then gives it to Aunt Indira, who is viewed by her mother as useless and only tolerated. Sarbajaya is overwhelmed as a mother because the father is rarely at home.

Apu is about 5 years old and goes to a trader's village school. Nothing in the family has changed in recent years. Durga, now pubescent, is still stealing and is supposed to learn housekeeping (cooking, etc.). The siblings' everyday free time consists of countless pranks and playing with the neighboring children. In her poverty, the depressed Sarbajaya dreams of a life in the city of Benares.

After an argument about her uselessness, the old Indira goes away and only comes back to Durga Puja after a long time , because she feels sick and wants to spend her last days in the old house. Her bungalow is now used as a dog house, Sarbajaya refuses to help her, Indira leaves the house and goes to die in the forest.

Durga and Apu chased each other up to a far away meadow. While they are eating sugar cane, they observe a steam-driven train as an “attraction”, the only “contact” with a world outside the village. On the way back they discover the dead aunt Indira in the forest.

Harihar leaves the family indefinitely to earn money as a priest. After 5 months I received a letter announcing his return. A friend of Durga's is married, she dreams of having a “good” husband of her own.

Durga catches a cold in the pouring thunderstorms of the monsoon ; her fever rises and she doesn't survive the night. The storm devastated the property.

Hari finally comes home and finds Sarbajaya apathetic and speechless. When he shows the present for Durga (a new sari ), the mother collapses, her pain is symbolized by a high-pitched, high-pitched sound of a string instrument.

They leave the place of their ancestors and move to Benares . A snake crawls into the house, it is deserted. The family drives away on an ox cart.

background

Pather Panchali is Satyajit Ray's directorial debut and also the first part of the Apu trilogy . Ray worked on this film for 4 years because he kept running out of money. In the end, through relationships, it was possible to secure funding from the state of West Bengal . The film was the first Indian film to attract attention in western foreign countries (at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956) and to gain international recognition for its director. The hardships of life in the country are shown in a poetic, realistic and humanly vivid way. The narration of the film is kept at a very slow pace. This corresponds to the speed of life far away from civilization and gives the viewer enough time to empathize with the strange world of rural India.

Reviews

"First film from the trilogy" Apus Weg ins Leben ", told by Satyajit Ray in epic breadth, incredibly dense, full of symbolic poetry, humanly very haunting."

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Apu's way into life: On the street. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 20, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used