Pather Panchali

Pather Panchali (Bengali: পথের পাঁচালী, Pôther Pãchali, English: Song of the Little Road) is a 1955 Bengali drama film directed by Satyajit Ray and produced by the Government of the Indian state of West Bengal. Based on Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay's 1929 Bengali novel of the same name, the film was the directorial debut of Ray. The first film of The Apu Trilogy, it depicts the childhood of the protagonist Apu in the countryside of Bengal in the 1920s.

Though the film had a shoestring budget of Rs. 150,000 (US$3000), featured mostly amateur actors, and was made by an inexperienced crew, Pather Panchali was a critical and popular success. Influenced by Italian neorealism, Satyajit Ray developed his own style of lyrical realism in this film. The first film from independent India to attract major international critical attention, Pather Panchali won "Best Human Document" at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, establishing Satyajit Ray as a major international filmmaker. Pather Panchali is today considered one of the greatest films ever made.

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