Review of Pather Panchali (1955) by Steve G — 24 Mar 2012
I had two very different impressions over the course of watching this film:
Firstly, literally zero story. none. just several hours of poor people being poor, and then someone dies from a cold. lacking anything resembling structure. It's not that I can't watch poor people (I love Slumdog Millionaire), it's that there's no reason to watch poor people doing nothing other than being poor. It was mostly incredibly listless, especially in its pacing.
However, despite all of the aforementioned flaws, it was significantly bolstered by the realism in the last 15 minutes or so. The final eighth of the film was so well done, that it gave new meaning to the previous seven.
It was very powerful. Reminiscent, in some ways, of Mystic River. And the music was used to full effect. Well acted.
Props for the train scene & capturing some of the playfulness of childhood very well.
It still won't ranked VERY highly because of the tedious nature of the majority of the viewing experience. but without the final eighth, it would be considered much lesser.
A side issue... the mother's voice. Might sound superficial, but I honestly wanted to turn it off countless times to keep from listening to it. the end of every sentence sounded like a whistle-pitched noise being raised, as though it were in the form of a question, no matter what was said. it was almost too much to handle.
This review of Pather Panchali (1955) was written by Steve G on 24 Mar 2012.
Pather Panchali has generally received very positive reviews.
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