As Walls Crumble by the Jungle

At the beginning of the 20th century in Bengal, a family struggles for survival in 1955's Pather Panchali. A great acheivement in cinematography, it's a poignant slice of life, showing daily struggles to illustrate how poverty breeds cruelty.

This is the first film in director Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy and it begins with the birth of young Apu on a simple, mostly roofless, homestead. The family consists of the patriarch, Harihar (Kanu Banerjee); his wife, Sarbajaya (Karuna Banerjee); their daughter, Durga (Runki Banerjee and Uma Dasgupta); an elderly aunt, Indir Thakrun (Chunibala Devi); and Apu (Subir Banerjee).

Harihar is usually not around, spending most of his time trying to find new ways of making money in the city. Sarbajaya is harsh with her daughter and aunt, both of whom have a tendency to steal from the kitchen or fruit from neighbouring properties. She has to be mindful of every little expense but the movie makes a point of how ephemeral existence is. Particularly in the case of the old aunt, who seems likely to die any day. Is the odd piece of friut here and there really reason enough to throw the old lady out?

But anxiety about money likely leads Sarbajaya to harder decisions than she otherwise would have made.

Young Apu is devoted to his sister and the two roam about the jungle and the fields together, leading to some of the film's most famous imagery.

The music by Ravi Shankar is good, too, and evidently a big influence on The Beatles.

Pather Panchali is available on The Criterion Channel.