Line #10 Literature/PatherPanchali


1	[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pather_panchali_film.jpg]]
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3	''Pather Panchali'' (''"Song of the Road"'') is a Bengali ComingOfAgeStory by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, originally published in India in 1929, during the time of UsefulNotes/TheRaj. The author's first novel, it depicts the life of the impoverished Roy family in rural Bengal, seen through the eyes of youngest child Apu.
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5	In the 1950s, it along with its sequel ''Film/{{Aparajito}}'' became the basis for Creator/SatyajitRay's critically acclaimed trio of films known as The Apu Trilogy. The film version of ''Aparajito'' covers Apu's adolescence and education, while series finale ''Film/ApurSansar'' follows Apu as a young adult.
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8	!!This novel contains examples of:
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10	* ComingOfAgeStory: The overarching theme is Apu's education and growing up.
11	* ImpoverishedPatrician: The Roy family are Brahmins, members of the highest caste in Hinduism, yet they live in poverty.
12	* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy:
13	** Tomboy Durga and her shy, sensitive little brother Apu.
14	** Practical, down-to-earth Sarbajaya and her poetic, daydreaming husband Harihar who dreams of becoming a writer.
15	* ParentalFavoritism: Harihar and Sarbajaya make no secret of their disappointment that Durga was born a girl.
16	* WhatBeautifulEyes: Many comments are made about Apu's large, expressive eyes.
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19	!!The film adaption contains examples of:
20	* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Apu to Durga. She's not happy when Apu messes with her prized paper collection.
21	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Harihar's trip to the city was a financial success, but he returns to find Durga dead and Sarbajaya despondent. The family ultimately moves to Benares, abandoning their ancestral home.]]
22	* BladeOfGrassCut: A rather long sequence showing a lily pond with water bugs and dragonflies flitting about.
23	* BrattyHalfPint: Durga and Apu, at least in the eyes of the village.
24	* ChekhovsGun: The Roys' neighbors accuse Durga of stealing a valuable necklace, which Durga vehemently denies. [[spoiler:While packing to leave Apu finds the necklace, throwing it in the lake to hide the fact that his sister was a liar and thief.]]
25	* ElderAbuse: Sarbajaya towards the elderly "Auntie" Indir.
26	* {{Flynning}}: The sword fight in the ShowWithinAShow has no choreography to speak of: it's just two actors striking their swords together in a repetitive pattern, alternately high and low. This being a pretty stylized form of theater, it's more an abstraction of fighting than an attempt to make it look real.
27	* MatchCut: A rather unconventional cut from Sarbjaya, sitting outside the house, weeping, to--Sarbjaya again, still sitting outside the house and weeping in the same position.
28	* RandomEventsPlot: As Ray put it:
29	--> I felt that to cast the thing in to a mould of cut-and-dried narrative would be wrong. The script had to retain some of the rambling quality of the novel, because that in itself contained a clue to the feel of authenticity; life in a poor Bengali village does ramble.
30	* SceneryPorn: Tons, particularly during the famous sequence of Apu and Durga running through the fields after the train.
31	* SliceOfLife: The plot deals with the ordinary rather than the extraordinary.
32	* ThousandYardStare: Sarbajaya after [[spoiler:her daughter Durga dies. The entire family gives a particularly haunting one later as they ride a wagon away from their village.]]
33	* UntranslatedTitle: "Song of the Little Road"

Context Literature / PatherPanchali