Pather Panchali (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #27 extract: Pather Panchali (1955)

Considered one of the, if not the, greatest Indian and Bengali films ever made, Pather Panchali (or, Song of the Little Road) is devastatingly brilliant. Moreover, this is a strong candidate for the best directorial debut ever made. 

A key film that was apart of the early Parallel Cinema movement - a stream of realist films that are quite antithetical to classical Bollywood movies - this explores poverty, youth and the weight of ancestry and the caste system on a family. Shot, directed and performed masterfully, almost every single frame of this film is picture-perfect. And above this Ray's capturing of textures, lights, reflections, nature and animals is truly stunning. With this film as a melting pot for so many individually phenomenal elements, Pather Panchali is ultimately awe-inspiring in such a way that your just left speechless.