The award-winning Indian film "Pather Panchali" is playing Thursday night at the Fred Jones Jr. Art Museum on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman.
Directed and co-written by legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray in 1955, the film, follows the life and struggle of a young boy born to a poor family in a village in Bengal.
"Pather Panchali" which translates to mean "Song of the Little Road, is the first film in Ray's "Apu Trilogy," which includes "Aparajito" and "Apur Sansar," all of which follow the central character in Bengali author Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay's series of novels.
PLOT
The titular little road is the little life of the main character, Apu, whose coming-of-age story begins in "Pather Panchali." Apu's destitute family struggles to get by; the patriarch, Harihar, can't make ends meet, forcing the mother, Sarbojaya, to keep the family together.
Although much of the film is dire and depressing and filled with scenes of struggle and turmoil, they are offset by scenes of youth, exploration and innocence.
"Pather Panchali" starts at 7 p.m. inside the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. Admission is $5 for adults and free for OU students. For more information, call 325-4938. "?Joe Wertz
