Between Wonder and Intuition: Pather Panchali (The Song of the Road) from Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay to Satyajit Ray

Panchali is the never ending story of road. Path is an eternal flow which carries the entire. Pather Panchali a masterpiece by Bengali writer Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay and a path-breaking film in the tradition of Indian cinema by Satyajit Ray. The film was acknowledged as the ‘Best Human Document's award at the Cannes Film Festival of 1956. The focus in both is timeless human bond, an age old truth that touches the souls and minds, transcending cultural and linguistic barriers. It is the simple but deep emotions of everyday life-its joys, its bitterness, its anger, its resentment and its sorrows. It brings back to revisit the left behind time; it reminds the serene flow of a continuous stream-people born, live and die. Time flows, names alter but the Panchali is unchanged. The paper is a sincere attempt to arrest the fleeting treasured moments of life and explore the perpetual nuance of these. Both the film and the fiction, in fact, place the spectators/readers into a ring of wonder called ‘Life's and compel to comprehend the flow and seek the meaning of it.