Pather Panchali

Pather Panchali(1955) : A Film By Satyajit Ray.In spite of poverty and death the film leaves one not depressed but moved, filled with the beauty, and subtle glare of life. The film suggests an intimate relationship between loss and growth or destruction and creation. Simply this movie depicts human documentary in the native village of Bengal.

The word Pather literally means "of the path" in Bengali. Panchali refers to a type of narrative folk song. So the name of movie is "Song of the Road". It's based on a novel by a Bengali author named Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. Plot of movie is around of time of 1920’s. I have watched this movie recently and feel bit boring but very realistic at era in which it was made. The movie is not melodramatically sad but it is realistically sad. Although Ray did take liberties with the plot, he couldn't change so much so as to remove all the negative aspects from the story altogether. Sorrow and grief are inseparable from the real life. We have few moments of cherish that optimize us in the ages of gloominess. These emotions of happiness & sadness are mutually exclusive to each other. For the cinematic material dictated in the movie, a very slow rhythm determined by nature, the landscape, the country was necessary so that ray can stick to authentic version of novel.

The character of Sarbajaya, Apu and Durga are the three main storytellers through which whole movie was narrated. Ray reveals the love between members of a family in every situation.

The relationship between the brother and sister is so nice to watch. The sequences of Apu and elder sister Durga, exploring their little world and sharing secrets are most remarkable aspect of the film. These include the scenes of - discovery of train by Durga and Apu in field of white Kash flowers and the candy seller sequence.In the inspired 'candy-seller' sequence, as Durga and Apu secretly relish tamarind paste, their mother is complaining about hardships to their father. Durga hears a faint bell. She knows it is the candy-seller. Both go out and look longingly at the the pots with sweets in them. Durga sends Apu to ask for money from their father. Mother intervenes, and Apu returns empty handed. But the site of the pot-bellied candy-seller caring two bobbing pots of sweets is too tempting to resist. Both start following him. A stray dog joins the procession as it is reflected in a shimmering pond. The shadow of them in ponds just fuses the external world of theirs into internal silence inside us. The film develops its characters and the atmosphere slowly and resolutely. The narrative builds up to a powerful climax as we begin to attach to the film.

The ending was quite tragic personally for me. We see speechless Apu, for the first time taking the center stage in the story. Till now the story was seen through the point of view of either Sarbajaya or Durga. It is only in these final moments that we see Apu as an independent individual. Now his father decided to move to Varanasi, a city and leave behind all the past. In last scene the home of ancestor, a civilized place shows to be destroyed in ruins and human life still going despite death, grief and pain. Generally looking at broad prospective look how it shows the migration of people in India from villages to cities due to problem of poverty and other thing faced by them. The villages suffered a lot due to feminine or floods. Today the shift in population from village to cities (local to global) is seen in the back 1955.

What makes cinema different from a book is clearly depicted in this film. It is the way one represents the world. To draw it, color it, giving it a whole form... which can be touched. This movie transferred into huge canvas on which painter, Ray makes a pattern of human nature. I liked the movie because flow of emotions was so strong despite its boredom, affection for it never ends. The best thing of the movie was that Ray could convey the message through the medium and content both. The artistic creation of a characters and the intensity of emotions in cinematic way was touching. It is a living example of chaos of the struggle between internal and external world of human beings. This film brings to us happy moments as well as moments of grief and pain. Indeed, Rare and exquisite is work of Ray.

Ray's comment on this film: "It is true. For one year I was trying to sell the scenario, to peddle it... since nobody would buy it, I decided to start anyway, because we wanted some footage to prove that we were not incapable of making films. So I got some money against my insurance policies. We started shooting, and the fund ran out very soon. Then I sold some art books, some records and some of my wife's jewelry. Little trickles of money came, and part of the salary I was earning as art director. All we had to spend on was raw stock, hire of a camera and our conveniences, transport and so on... I had nothing more to pawn."

Awards:

President's Gold & Silver Medals, New Delhi, 1955
Best Human Document, Cannes 1956
Diploma Of Merit, Edinbugh, 1956
Vatican Award, Rome, 1956
Golden Carbao, Manila, 1956
Best Film and Direction, San Francisco, 1957
Selznik Golden Laurel, Berlin, 1957
Best Film, Vancouver, 1958
Critics' Award - Best Film, Stratford, (Canada), 1958
Best Foreign Film, New York, 1959
Kinema Jumpo Award: Best Foreign Film, Tokyo 1966
Bodil Award: Best Non-European Film of the Year, Denmark, 1966

Boot Polish

BOOT POLISH(1954) - Boot Polish is an awesome creation about world seen through child eyes.This film ranks as one of the finest thought provoking social dramas asking how we look at ourselves given the limited resources and choices and faced with overwhelming odds. Raj Kapoor's presentation of the humble lifestyle of two children who wish to overcome the obstacles of abject poverty shows the importance of the spirit of endurance and dedication in the face of adversity. We can view deeply in film when children try to face challenges in the world created by greedy souls. I saw this film once when I was a small child of 8 years and I never forgot some scene of it till today. Some scenes are still floating in front of my eyes.

Boot Polish is a pure example of Classical Hindi cinema that made its presence in the world. It is filled with songs and dances, stylized skill in Cinematography, idealized characters, myriad sub-plots, and in end with an inspiring message. Though technically not a musical, the joyous and hypnotic songs on the soundtrack are interwoven into the plot in a way that both enhances the drama and reminds you that it is a “movie” not a boring documentary. It won the 1953/54 Filmfare awards for best picture, best supporting actor, and best cinematography. Director Prakash Arora was nominated for Golden Palm and Baby Naaz won special mention to a child actress at Cannes Film Festival (1954). It was really a moment of proud for any sensible cinema loving Indian.

It is really a movie worth watching in context to any cinema in the world on the condition of children in slum areas. Struggle for survival of both children is depicted wonderfully in movie that makes you disturb again and again as you watch it. The movie tells a human story of two destitute children belonging to a slum area in Bombay. BHOLA an innocent boy of ten and his younger sister BELU aged seven shares an uncertain future when their mom dies in the plague, and their dad is imprisoned. Their aunt, KAMLA CHACHI is woman of low morals, a distant relative who had provided the kids with sleeping space in her shed. They are then left in the uncaring care of cruel aunt, who works as a prostitute in slums of the city. They were well trained in the art of begging by her so that they can earn their living for their needs and do not become load to her. The worse thing a child faces when someone takes their life of childhood and put them in the cruel and greedy world to stand on their own feet. She is cruel, abusive and forces them to take to a life of begging on the local trains, on beaches and crowded areas in Bombay. The constant abuses and beatings from aunt had made the lives of these kids an absolute hell. The age of innocence becomes age of suffering for the children. This is how they grew up in this world of humankind. Now, they want to lead a respectable life. Their only ray of hope was the neighbour, JOHN an old eccentric man with a sharp tongue but a golden heart. He earned his living by polishing shoes in the streets of Bombay. With the help of John they get a shoe-shine kit and start shining shoes on busy sidewalks and railway platforms. Their John's simple words ""Starve, die, but don't beg. Do something with your two hands"" - inspired the kids to stop begging and start the work of polishing boots. The idea of shining shoes fascinated him so much he resolved to become a bootblack. A new sense of dignity and pride comes to the Bhola when he started to do this work of shining shoes or boot polish. Their destinies face more uncertainty when enraged Kamla finds out about their new-found profession. She beats them up and turned out of the house for not begging and polishing boots instead. They temporarily seek shelter with John, but the arrest of John took from their lives the little love and consolation they had. They were left crying and helpless with no one to go to with their troubles.

Things become bad to worse when Bombay enters the monsoon season, when people do not get their shoes shined; Hours passed and they couldn't get any business. The ceaseless rain has spoiled their chances of getting a single customer. They ran from station to station, from street to street only to be disappointed. Belu started crying and wanted Bhola to beg for some money so that she could get something to eat. A great conflict rose in his mind. He had sworn not to beg but his beloved sister was fainting from hunger. His troubles and trails mounted up to a new pitch of pathos till the question ""BEG or DIE"", poses itself once again. That is really a zenith of the internal crisis of a child. One cannot fight with the own conscious when he sees the plight and misery of his owns in front of the hunger. In order bring food to his sister, bhola went away. Then the duo is separated in that situation- with Belu adopted by a rich family. When she asks about Bhola, she is told that he is dead. The question remains is Bhola really dead, if not, what has been his fate? But when the darkness seems to take over everything, a single ray of light seems more encouraging than anything. One day she saw a bhola selling some articles on the street. She runs behind him and then Bhola, Belu and John Chacha met again on the cross roads of life. The trials and troubles of world were left behind; a new world of love and respect awaited them. This was the end of one period and the beginning of another. In their shining eyes and faces, the future of the children of the coming generation was glimpsed."

I find the movie a life-affirming and rich cinematic experience. The love of brother and sister for each other is very real, and their struggle for survival and social respectability is profoundly touching. Filled with positive energy and the "heroic face of innocence” Boot Polish is now more than ever one of my all time favourite classical films. I would recommend this film as a lesson in the triumph of the human spirit when facing the evils of man made adversity. We probably can relate to the two young characters of the film in our day to day lives. Life can be unfair and unjust, and films such as BOOT POLISH show the more dramatic encounters of what we call the human struggle not only to survive but to go forward with esteem in life. Read here a scene from boot polish.

Present of ITBHU-Infrastructre

I have already discussed or just dictated about mighty past of IT-BHU before.

We lack the facilities and infrastructure as compared to IITs and all of us agree on this fact. Just compare the budgets allotted by central government, they are ahead of us ten times. Lack of the advanced facilities in IT-BHU don't discourage students, but the most discouraging thing here is the work culture. People simply do not want to work. The Sarkare Babushai system has acquired a long roots here. Neither they interfere in your work nor they support genuine effort. You stand alone just on your knowledge and skills; Some helping seniors who had been facing same working environment from years are there for guidance. Few teachers are involved in upgrading the institute but most of them just don't have lively interaction with the students.

Flow of information about mischief and local politics spread like velocity of light but someones good work are not heard in campus news. Many people are not even able to digest the praise of others. Faculty crunch is one of the tough things faced by IT-BHU. We are realizing that there is decrease in certain professors of great ability on whose shoulders our institute stands. When you see the spitting of benarasi pan here and there by faculty members, you feel that wow ! This is the result of cracking JEE exams and then one great decision at counseling session.

I am not delivering here my point on negative aspect of infrastructure and faculty members. There are some people working really hard but they are not on the radars due to blockage of information. You will know which teacher is hard and strict, but never know reason of his/her behavior and what one expects from the student. The sense of pride or dignity with the attachment to institute is lacking in our working staff and faculty members. Even if they consider themselves as a part of this institute but they lack vision of quality standard required to make great from good, a modern technical institute.

Just check out the  IIT-B website. It shows why they are so ahead of us.

In addition to all of these curses, making your way through the red tape is worst that you will get from this university by default. Presence of corruption from top to bottom in a central university is a major hindrance in any achievement. Results are delayed and getting even the simplest of things done required lot of running around and signatures at different levels. The result of 1st semester is declared in mid February after completion of exams in mid December. It is not slow valuation of exam copies but a tedious process in preparing final result by our university.

The entire university behaves like arrogant, stagnant and orthodox old king without any knowledge of present. Do not expect any grand future vision. Barely anything is finished with professionalism and in time. Projects are delayed, result are delayed; Here everything runs in past. Counting of problems about infrastructure cannot be stopped here. Money is a little problem but will power to take risk has became major problem in each engineering department. People do not want to take initiative or decision on many matters. These delaying of the decisions has been harming our institute more than anything.

The main point to note is: University is much more stronger legally than us because of mammoth paper work. Only paper work is done on the name of work. In this respect, attachment of IT-BHU to university has done more harm than good. This is the line taken from another blog about IT-BHU only: "The true advantage of a real university lies in the tremendous scope for inter-disciplinary activities." That is not happening here.

First thing first, the decentralization of administration from the university is necessary for development of this institute. To regain the glory of IT-BHU, we are the only hopes...
Rest is on us. (बाक़ी तो हम पर है...)