Review of Pather Panchali (1955) by Jay A — 11 Aug 2007

You can sense a great filmmaker learning his craft as he makes this, his debut film, and infusing every shot with his absolute love for the medium. This is the least accessible of the Apu films (because it's a tad slow, episodic, a kind of drifting storyline, but consider it a poem about family, the vagaries of destiny, and the harshness attendant with coming of age.

Also, gorgeous sequences incl. Apu and his sister Durga discovering "modern" India, embodied by a train crossing the countryside, and the haunting final scenes involving a raging rainstorm.