Pather Panchali Essay Questions

What is the significance of the relationship between Durga and Indir?

Durga and Indir are connected in a specific way in this story. They each find themselves at the center of Sarbojaya's attention as she is constantly frustrated with them both due to their lack of respect for housework, and their neediness. Indir encourages Durga's stealing from the orchard by taking the fruit the child has stolen. Sarbojaya does not stand for this as Indir's acceptance of the fruit directly contradicts her wanting Durga to be an upstanding citizen. Indir and Durga are thus aligned in their mischief, and their disregard for their reputations. Indir is kicked out of the home, but eventually returns twice in the film, while Durga continues to steal, and to lie about stealing, even though her mother begs her not to. The characters are connected by their mutual affection and their desire for the sweeter things in life, their belief in the pursuit of pleasure over hard work. In the end, both of the characters meet death. We watch as both young and old become casualties of poverty.

What is the irony in Durga stealing from the orchard?

Durga steals fruit from the orchard constantly and her mother scolds her for it. Ironically, the orchard used to belong to Harihar's brother, but was taken by another family upon his death as payment for a debt he owed. Thus, Durga is taking fruit from her family's orchard that was given up by her father, but is now punished for it. Additionally, there is irony in the fact that after Durga dies, the mean aunt who had scolded Durga for stealing comes to visit Sarbajaya sympathetically, lamenting that she didn't help the family more. This irony makes Durga's death all the more tragic, by emphasizing the fact that it was, to some extent, preventable.

What inspired Satyajit Ray to make Pather Panchali?

Ray was inspired to become a filmmaker when he was traveling to London for work and went into a movie theatre and saw Bicycle Thieves for the very first time. Until that day, Ray had been working to create a film that fit into the ethic of realism, but Bicycle Thieves and other films inspired by Italian neorealism, as well as the work of Jean Renoir, inspired Ray to take a more imaginative approach to storytelling.

How does the natural world figure into the film?

Nature is the basic landscape and playground for the protagonists, Apu and Durga. As the film is told largely through the eyes of the two children, it spends a great deal of time in nature, either in a field or a forest. In spite of their poverty, Apu and Durga find a great deal of joy from being outside and exploring their general surroundings. In contrast to the natural world is the large electrical grid and the passing train that the two children encounter. The humming of the electrical grid represents the ever-modernizing world, while the train represents a connection to the wider world around them, and the two siblings love to dream and imagine as they watch the train pass by. In the end, nature proves to be powerful and dangerous as much as it is beautiful and inviting. After Durga spends too much time in the rain during a monsoon, she gets a fever and dies. Thus, nature in the film is portrayed as powerful in both a positive and a negative sense.

Some believed that the film glorified poverty upon its release. Discuss.

The film explores the life of an impoverished family in a multifarious way. While Sarbajaya, the matriarch, frets and worries about the family's financial situation, her husband Hari is far more passive, suggesting that God will make everything turn out for the best. Meanwhile, their children, Apu and Durga, wander through the world expectantly, finding simple pleasure in the day-to-day, and never getting sad about their poverty. While we see many different perspectives on poverty, the film hardly suggests that poverty is noble or romantic, as it leads to two unfortunate deaths in the family, Durga and Indir. Furthermore, the family's poverty is made all the worse by the meanness and ungenerous attitudes of the family's neighbors. If anything, the film suggests that poverty and its ills are avoidable and might be helped through a community effort of compassion.