Pather Panchali: Difference between revisions

Author Andrew Robinson, in the book ''The Apu Trilogy: Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic'' (2010), notes that it is challenging to narrate the plot of {{Lang|bn-latn|Pather Panchali}} and the "essence of the film lies in the ebb and flow of its human relationships and in its everyday details and cannot be reduced to a tale of events".{{sfn | Robinson | 2010 | loc=Chapter 5. ''Pather Panchali'': Crtique}} In his 1958 ''New York Times'' review, Crowther writes that {{Lang|bn-latn|Pather Panchali}} delicately illustrates how "poverty does not always nullify love" and how even very poor people can enjoy the little pleasures of their world.<ref name="crowther"/> Marie Seton describes how the film intersperses the depiction of poverty and the delights and pleasures of youth. She represents the bond between Durga and Indir, and their fate, as signifying a philosophical core: that both the young and the old die. Seton writes of the film's "lyrical" qualities, noting especially the imagery immediately before the onset of monsoon.{{sfn|Seton|2003|pp=81–84}} Robinson writes about a peculiar quality of "lyrical happiness" in the film, and states that {{Lang|bn-latn|Pather Panchali}} is "about unsophisticated people shot through with great sophistication, and without a trace of condescension or inflated sentiment".{{sfn|Robinson|1989|pp=95–96}}

 

Darius Cooper discusses the use of different ''rasa'' in the film,{{sfn|Cooper|2000|pages=24–40}} observing Apu's repeated "epiphany of wonder",{{sfn|Cooper|2000|pages=24–26}}{{efn|name=camatkara|Darius Cooper uses the term "epiphany of wonder" to denote the ''rasa'' of ''camatkara''. He quotes [[Abhinavabharati]] by [[Abhinavagupta]] to explain the ''camatkara rasa'': "...&nbsp;''camatkara'' is an uninterrupted (''acchina'') state of immersion (''avesha'') in an enjoyment characterized by the presence of a sensation of inner fullness (''trpti''). It might be said indeed that ''camatkara'' is the action proper to a tasting (''cam'') or enjoying subject, i.e., to a person immersed in the inner movement (''trpti'') of a magical (''adbhuta'') enjoyment". {{harv|Cooper|2000|pages=24–25}} Cooper says that through Apu the "universe is revealed. To Apu is given the dominant quality of ''camatkara'', and it is through this sense of wonder that Apu is made to discover and enjoy not only the world that constantly surrounds him but also that other world created by his ''pratibha'' or imagination".{{harv|Cooper|2000|page=25}}

}} brought about not only by what the boy sees around him, but also when he uses his imagination to create another world.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|page=25}} For Cooper, the immersive experience of the film corresponds to this epiphany of wonder. Stephen Teo uses the scene in which Apu and Durga discover railway tracks as an example of the gradual build-up of epiphany and the resulting immersive experience.{{sfn|Teo|2013|p=49}}