''Parash Pathar'' ( bn, পরশ পাথর ''Porosh Pathor''; English: ''The Philosopher's Stone''; French: ''La Pierre Philosophale'') is a 1958

Bengali language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second m ...

Indian

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

. It was

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...

's first film outside of ''

The Apu Trilogy ''The Apu Trilogy'' comprises three Indian Bengali-language drama films directed by Satyajit Ray: '' Pather Panchali'' (1955), '' Aparajito'' (1956) and '' The World of Apu'' (1959). The original music for the films was composed by Ravi Shanka ...

''. It was also his first comedy and first magical realist film. Adapted from a short story of the same name by Parasuram ( Rajsekhar Basu), the film offered an early glimpse of Ray's sense of humour, centered on a middle-class clerk who accidentally discovers a stone that can turn other objects into gold.

Plot

Paresh Chandra Dutt (

Tulsi Chakrabarti Tulsi Chakraborty (also Tulsi Chakrabarti, bn, তুলসী চক্রবর্তী; 3 March 1899 – 11 December 1961) was an Indian actor and comedian who worked in Bengali cinema in the 1940s and 50s. His most notable role could be t ...

), a middle-class bank clerk in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, attends a charity match on a rainy day rather reluctantly. At Curzon Park (modern-day Surendranath Park), where the match is apparently to be held, he finds a small, round stone. Thinking it is a marble, he gives it to his nephew. The child discovers that it turns metal into gold (i.e. the

philosopher's stone The philosopher's stone or more properly philosophers' stone (Arabic: حجر الفلاسفة, , la, lapis philosophorum), is a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold (, from the Greek , "gold", ...

). Dutt "buys" the stone from the child with sweets after witnessing the stone's power himself. He decides to take a few old cannonballs from the city dump, turn them into gold, and sell them. This scheme makes him rich; as a chauffeur drives him home from the dump, the car pulls into the driveway of a mansion (his new home). He now has a young secretary named Priyatosh Henry Biswas (

Kali Banerjee Kali Banerjee (20 November 1920 – 5 July 1993) was an Indian actor, who worked in the 1950s–1970s in Bengali cinema. He is best known for his work with film directors like Satyajit Ray in ''Parash Pathar'' (1958) and Ritwik Ghatak in ''Na ...

) who, among other things, mentions that Dutt is invited to a cocktail party (his first). At the party, Dutt acts slightly unnatural before engaging in drunken revelry. When another guest orders him to get out, he turns an iron figurine into gold (thus partially revealing how he became successful). It is not long before this incident is posted as a headline in the papers, causing a panic in Bengal. Paresh Dutt flees with his wife, Giribala (Ranibala Devi), leaving nearly everything (including the stone) with Priyatosh but cautioning him to hand it over if the police arrive. Soon, Mr. and Mrs. Dutt are taken to a police station for interrogation, and the police discover that the desperate Priyatosh has swallowed the stone. Dr. Nandi (Moni Srimani), a medical specialist, informs the inspector (Haridhan Mukherjee) that Priyatosh is digesting the stone. Soon after Paresh and Giribala Dutt hear of this, they notice the golden objects turning back into iron. The Dutts happily rejoin their servant (Jahar Roy) and Priyatosh.

Cast

– Paresh Chandra Dutta * Ranibala Devi – Giribala Dutt (Paresh's wife) *

– Priyotosh Henry Biswas (Paresh's personal secretary) *

Jahar Roy Dzhokhar may refer to: * Dzhokhar (name) * Grozny Grozny ( rus, Грозный, p=ˈgroznɨj; ce, Соьлжа-ГӀала, translit=Sölƶa-Ġala), also spelled Groznyy, is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunz ...

– Brajahari, The servant *

Gangapada Basu Gangapada Basu (as known as Gangapada Bose) (12 March 1910- 23 May 1971) was a Bengali film and theatre actor. He was an actor in the Gananatya Sangha and Bohurupee theatre groups. Films * ''Tothapi (1950) * '' Chinnamul'' (1950) * ''Nagari ...

– Businessman Kachalu * Haridhan Mukherjee– Police Inspector Chatterjee *

Bireswar Sen Bireswar Sen (1897–1974) was an Indian painter, writer, and teacher, who was influenced by the Bengal School of Art and Western modernism, but then later developed a unique visual language of miniatures. He depicted grand landscapes, mostly fe ...

– Police Officer * Moni Srimani – Doctor Nandi

Chhabi Biswas Chhabi Biswas (''Chabi Biśbās'') (13 July 1900 – 11 June 1962) was an Indian actor, primarily known for his performances in Tapan Sinha's '' Kabuliwala'' and Satyajit Ray's films '' Jalshaghar'' (''The Music Room'', 1958), '' Devi'' ( ...

, Jahar Ganguli,

Pahari Sanyal Pahari Sanyal (22 February 1906 – 10 February 1974) was an Indian actor and singer who is known for his work in Bengali cinema. Sanyal acted in many Bengali films, such as ''Harano Sur'', ''Bhanu Goenda Jahar Assistant'', and ''Shilpi''. B ...

Kamal Mitra Kamal Mitra was an Indian actor who appeared in more than 90 films spanning more than four decades. Along with Chhabi Biswas (1900–1962) and Pahari Sanyal (1906–1974) he dominated the Bengali silver screen as a character actor. Mitra playe ...

, Nitish Mukherjee, Subodh Ganguli,

Tulsi Lahiri Tulsi Lahiri (7 April 1897 – 22 June 1959) was a Bengali actor, director and play writer. Early life Lahiri was born in 1897 in a zamindar family of Naldanga village, Rangpur of British India. He passed B.A and B.L and started his lawyer caree ...

Amar Mullick Amar Mullick (May 1899 – August 1972) was an Indian actor and director. Career Mullick was born in 1899 in Kolkata, British India. Although he was a civil engineer by profession but passionate in films. He joined New Theatres group in 1932 and ...

, Chandrabati Devi, Renuka Roy, and Bharati Devi also star as cocktail party guests.

Other credits

Art Direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

– Bansi Chandragupta * Sound Editor – Durgadas Mitra The credits for ''Parash Pathar'' are presented not in Bengali (the language used for credits in almost all of Satyajit Ray's films), not even in English, but in French. (This is probably because Ray's films had begun to be quite popular in France.) For this reason, some DVDs of the film include the title "''Parash Pathar (la pierre philosophale)''," i.e. the title in Bengali and French, respectively. This is the first Satyajit Ray film to be released with

as an actor. In this film, he is merely one of the several guests at the cocktail party. However, in Ray's next film (''

Jalsaghar ''Jalsaghar'' ( bn, জলসাঘর ''Jalsāghar'', "The Music Room") is a 1958 Indian Bengali drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray, based on a popular short story by Bengali writer Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, and starring Chhabi Bis ...

''), he has the lead role.

Critical reception

''Parash Pathar'' "would belong among Ray's best work, were it not for some rough edges which betray the speed at which it was shot .... its humour only partly transplants to the west." says Andrew Robinson. Satyajit Ray himself described the film as a "combination of comedy, fantasy, satire, farce and a touch of '' pathos''." The film was entered into the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

(Best Film).

Preservation

The

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

preserved ''Parash Pathar'' in 2007.

References

External links

Parash Pathar (SatyajitRay.org)
* {{Satyajit Ray 1958 films Films directed by Satyajit Ray Bengali-language Indian films Films set in Kolkata Films with screenplays by Satyajit Ray Films scored by Ravi Shankar 1950s Bengali-language films