Page 104 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

5

Pather Panchali:

Critique

Some two decades after the first release of Pather Panchali, Akira
Kurosawa said of it:

I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing it.
I have had several more opportunities to see the fi lm since
then and each time I feel more overwhelmed. It is the kind

of cinema that flows with the serenity and nobility of a big
river.
People are born, live out their lives, and then accept their

deaths. Without the least effort and without any sudden jerks,

Ray paints his picture, but its effect on the audience is to stir

up deep passions. How does he achieve this? There is nothing
irrelevant or haphazard in his cinematographic technique. In
that lies the secret of its excellence.

Ray’s film-making is the art that conceals art; by the great-
est economy of means he creates films that are among the most
life-like in the history of cinema. Effortlessness is a hallmark of
all his best work. As he said – and always strove for on screen –
‘The best technique is the one that’s not noticeable.’

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