In Satyajit Ray’s **Pather Panchali** (1955), the main character is **Apu** (Apurba Roy), played by Subir Banerjee. However, because the film is a naturalistic "coming-of-age" story centered on a family, his elder sister **Durga** (Uma Dasgupta) and mother **Sarbajaya** (Karuna Banerjee) are equally vital and often provide the most poignant dialogue.
### **The Main Character: Apu**
Apu is the protagonist of the film and the larger "Apu Trilogy." In *Pather Panchali*, we see the world through his eyes as he grows from an infant to a young boy. His character represents the innocence of childhood set against a backdrop of crushing rural poverty.
#### **Memorable Line: "Is she asleep?"**
* **Context:** After a devastating monsoon storm, Apu wakes up to find a neighbor checking on Durga, who has died of pneumonia during the night.
* **Detail:** His innocent question, *"Is she asleep?"* (Bengali: *Ghumocche?*), is widely considered the most heartbreaking line in the film. It underscores the theme of childhood innocence meeting the harsh, incomprehensible reality of death for the first time.
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### **Other Memorable Lines by Central Characters**
While Apu is the protagonist, the most evocative lines often come from his sister and parents, who vocalize the family's internal struggles.
#### **1. Durga: "We’ll go see the train when I’m better, all right?"**
* **Context:** Durga is bedridden with a high fever after playing in the rain. She makes this promise to Apu, referring to their earlier, iconic discovery of a train in a field of *kash* flowers.
* **Detail:** This line is tragic because the audience suspects—and later confirms—that she will never recover. It symbolizes the death of the children’s shared dreams and the end of their idyllic, albeit poor, bond.
* **The Rain Rhyme:** Durga also chants a traditional nursery rhyme during the rain: *"Lebu pata koromcha / Hey brishti ghore ja"* ("Lemon leaf, koromcha / O rain, go home"). It is a moment of pure joy that precedes the tragedy.
#### **2. Sarbajaya (The Mother): "I had dreams, too, of all the things I would do."**
* **Context:** In a rare moment of vulnerability, Sarbajaya speaks to her husband, Harihar, expressing her exhaustion and resentment over their perpetual poverty.
* **Detail:** This line humanizes her beyond the "stern matriarch" archetype. It reveals that her bitterness toward the elderly aunt (Indir) and her strictness with Durga are born from the mourning of her own lost potential.
#### **3. Harihar (The Father): "Whatever God ordains is for the best."**
* **Context:** Harihar often says this to comfort Sarbajaya when their financial situation worsens.
* **Detail:** This line highlights the central conflict between Harihar’s passive, spiritual optimism and Sarbajaya’s grounded, desperate pragmatism. His refusal to see the gravity of their situation leads to the film's climax when he returns from the city with gifts for a daughter who is already dead.
#### **4. Indir Thakrun (The Aunt): "Lord, the day is done and evening falls. Ferry me across..."**
* **Context:** The elderly, impoverished aunt sings this song shortly before she leaves the house to die alone in the forest.
* **Detail:** The song (a *Bhatiali* or folk song) serves as a metaphor for death. Her lines about a "penniless beggar" having "no cowrie to her name" emphasize the theme of social neglect that permeates the film.