One of the most beautiful films ever made.

"The film depicts a boy's childhood in the Indian countryside in the early twentieth century.

The film was made on a shoestring budget by Ray, who was at that time a completely unknown director. After the success of Pather Panchali, Ray was able to obtain a grant from the government of West Bengal, and completed the trilogy at the behest of the Prime Minister of India; this indicates the extent of the first film's cultural impact.

The film is an adaptation of the Bengali novel by the same name by noted Bengali writer Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. But when it was adapted by Satyajit Ray a great many changes and cuts were made to the book's original form. Ray always claimed that cinema, as a medium of artistic expression, was entirely different from literary modes such as novels, short stories, and dramas. He restructured the entire story and cut away what he thought were unnecessary elements of the novel."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pather_Panchali