The film shows vividly the emotional arc of each character, the most powerful of which is the mother Sarbajaya, whom is practically devoid of any emotion at all throughout the majority of the film. There is almost a sense of detachment at different points in time among all of the members of the family. The entirety of the film is showcasing the various real life emotions that each member of the family endures through their experiences. Though there is some symbolism strung throughout the film, nothing about the story is abstract at all. Another important thematic element is how emotion is emphasized rather than abstract ideas. One of the thematic elements that are prevalent are the daily lives of ordinary impoverished people, “poverty played a running theme in Indian Neo-Realist Cinema and it was so believed that there is an ability in the camera to mechanically reproduce reality” (Shorewal, 2009). SatyajitRay was heavily influenced by the 1948 film , The Bicycle Thief, Directed by Vittorio De Sica and many elements of Neo-Realism can be found within Pather Panchali. The film movement that Pather Panchali was influenced by was Italian Neo-Realism. The film is about a period of time in one family’s life in which grief and tragedy force the family to ultimately leave their village in pursuit of better opportunities. Satyajit Ray uses allegorical symbolism in the story such as water, used in many scenes to represent the rhythm of everyday life and the scene of the train, representing being left behind by the modern world. The film shows the inner struggles of relationships among family members, the hardships of poverty, the morality of a culture, and childlike wonderment.

The story is seen from the perspective of the youngest child, Apu as he experiences the unraveling and destruction of his family over a short period of time. Pather Panchali, Directed by Satyajit Ray and released in 1955 is about an impoverished Indian family, struggling to survive day to day life in their ancestral village in Bengal, India.

Pather panchali analysis