Satyajit Ray with a cigarette, a steam train and a field of tall grass behind him — artwork for Manik da

Satyajit Ray centenary · 2021 · 66 min

Manik da The Mystique of Pather Panchali

A film by Justin Smith

IMDb 8.2/10

Screened atChiayi InternationalArt Documentary Film FestivalTaiwan
Screened atBengaluru InternationalFilm FestivalIndia

Where to watch About the film

The film

A portrait of the legendary auteur Satyajit Ray, and his first film Pather Panchali.

পথের পাঁচালী

To his family and friends he was Manik. To the world he became one of cinema’s great masters.

Made for Ray’s centenary year, the film follows his life and the making of his first feature, Pather Panchali (1955) — the debut that announced a new voice in world cinema.

With archive footage of Ray himself, and featuring his son Sandip Ray, the film takes us back to West Bengal in the 1950s and chronicles Ray’s many struggles in bringing his first film to life. The film is also narrated by Michael Pennington (Star Wars: Return of the Jedi).