Produced on a shoestring budget (Pather Panchali had a budget of roughly Rs. 150,000 ($45,300—equivalent to $400,200in 2016)) using an amateur cast and crew, the trilogy is a milestone in Indian cinema and remains one of the finest examples of the Parallel Cinema movement. The three films went on to win many national and international awards, including three National Film Awards and seven awards from the Cannes, Berlin and Venice Film Festivals. They are today frequently listed among the greatest films of all time and are often cited as the greatest movies in the history of Indian cinema.
Plot summaries
The three films comprise a "coming of age" narrative in the vein of a bildungsroman; they describe the childhood, education and early maturity of a young Bengali named Apu (Apurba Kumar Roy) in the early part of the 20th century.