Pather Panchali that requires and rewards patience in equal measure, "Pather Panchali" finds director Satyajit Ray delivering a classic with his debut." In 2018 the film earned the 15th spot when BBC released the top 100 foreign language films ever. In the 1990s, Merchant Ivory Productions, with assistance from the Academy Film Archive and Sony Pictures Classics, undertook a project to restore the prints. The restored prints, along with several other Ray films, were released in select US theatres. "Pather Panchali" is available in DVD in Region 2 (DVD region code) PAL and Region 1 NTSC formats. Artificial Eye Entertainment is the
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