Pather Panchali Movie Review

Satyajit Ray began his career with a film that still stands as possibly the best-known Indian film ever made, and regarded by many as one of the greats of all time. Ray's Pather Panchali is a bleak and sprawling work that, for the most part, focuses on a dirt poor Indian boy named Apu. He's born in this film, and watches his family wrestle with self-doubt and incredible destitution, only to see things get worse and worse. The depressing tale is backed by truly haunting black and white cinematography. Ignore the subtitles and it's almost like watching some of Chaplin's best works.