Pather Panchali’ in BBC’s top 20 films

Entertainment Desk
The BBC has unveiled their list of the 100 best foreign-language films of the 21st century where 209 critics from 43 different countries took part in the poll.  The survey run by BBC Culture narrowed down 100 films from 67 different directors, from 24 countries, and in 19 languages. French turned out to be the predominant language as 27 of the highest-rated films in this poll were in French, followed by 12 in Mandarin, and 11 each in Italian and Japanese.
However, only one Indian film has made it to the list, Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali,’ which was released in 1955 and placed at number 15 on the list.] ‘Pather Panchali’ based on Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s 1929 novel of the same name, depicts the childhood of two sisters, Apu and Durga and the harsh reality of village which they face due to poverty.
Ray’s film which won the best human documentary award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival has time and again been featured in various lists of the greatest films ever made.  However, Japanese film ‘Seven Samurai,’ directed by Akira Kurosawa was voted as to be the number one film of this survey made in a foreign language. The critics of this poll around the world loved Kurosawa’s film except for the Japanese critics who didn’t cast a single vote to any of his films.