Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali declared best Indian film by International Federation of Film Critics

Legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray's feature Pather Panchali has been declared as the best Indian film of all time by International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI).

The 1955 film has received the number one slot in the top ten films in the history of Indian cinema list, which was declared after a poll conducted by the India chapter of FIPRESCI.

As per a press release issued by FIPRESCI-India, the poll was conducted in secret, and involved 30 members.

Based on Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's 1929 Bengali novel of the same name, "Pather Panchali" was Ray's directorial debut. It starred Subir Banerjee, Kanu Banerjee, Karuna Banerjee, Uma Dasgupta, Pinaki Sengupta and Chunibala Devi. This list also features Ritwik Ghatak's 1960 drama Meghe Dhaka Tara (Bengali), Mrinal Sen's 1969 drama Bhuvan Shome (Hindi), Adoor Gopalakrishnan's 1981 drama Elippathayam (Malayalam), Girish Kasaravalli's 1977 film Ghatashraddha (Kannada), MS Sathyu's 1973 movie Garm Hava (Hindi), Ray's 1964 film Charulata (Bengali), Shyam Benegal's 1974 film Ankur (Hindi), Guru Dutt's 1954 film Pyaasa (Hindi) and 1975 blockbuster Sholay (Hindi), directed by Ramesh Sippy.

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These are the words of Satyajit Ray. It is now widely known that his debut film Pather Panchali took Indian cinema to a whole new level. It made the world sit up and take notice of our cinema, which, before the film came along, was looked upon merely as a means of escape from reality. The fact that cinema can be used as a medium to tell real human stories and that it has a space independent of other performing arts such as the opera or the theatre, was largely unknown, and certainly not practised.

With added inputs from Bhaskar Chattopadhyay's piece on Pather Panchali.

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