Sabitri Chatterjee the actor who would later perform as "Harihar Roy", in Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali" and "Aparajito". Sabitri also acted the film version of the play which was released in 1953. She made her big screen debut in Uttam Kumar starrer "Sahajatri" (1951) directed by Agradoot and appeared as her first female lead in Sudhir Mukherjee's comedy film "Pasher Bari" (1952) which was a major success at box office. Sabitri Chatterjee's next film assignment was "Subhada" (1952) – a film based on a novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and directed by Niren Lahiri along with Chhabi Biswas and Pahari Sanyal. In
Pather Panchali of rural Bengal to construct an image of the ideal village. In contrast to this idealism, Mitali Pati and Suranjan Ganguly point out how Ray used eye-level shots, natural lighting, long takes and other techniques to achieve realism. Mainak Biswas has written that "Pather Panchali" comes very close to the concept of Italian neorealism, as it has several passages with no dramatic development, even though the usual realities of life, such as the changing of seasons or the passing of a day, are concretely filmed. "Pather Panchali" has won many national and international awards. At India's 3rd National Film Awards