The aesthetic category of "rasa" in Satyajit Ray's film "Pather Panchali" (1955)

The subject of the study is the concept of "rasa" as a unique structural and aesthetic category of Indian art. The aim of the article is to recontextualize a number of categories from Sanskrit drama in relation to the auteur cinematic language of Satyajit Ray. The relevance of the topic lies in the fact that existing research on Indian cinema shifts the focus to its connection with the neo-realist tradition, as well as the influence of the country’s mythology and religion on the modes of image creation. A comparative analysis of Aristotle's "Poetics" and Bharata's "Natyashastra" reveals substantive and structural similarities in the understanding of "action" and "plot" within these traditions, while the purpose of the artwork is understood fundamentally differently. In contrast to catharsis in the Western tradition, Indian art aims to immerse the viewer in a poetized artistic world and evoke the experience of rasa as a specific aesthetic enjoyment. The method of interpretive anthropology developed by C. Geertz allows for a return to the foundations of the theory of syncretic ritual-theatrical forms and the development of a film analysis system using aesthetic categories and a terminological apparatus characteristic of the national code of Indian art. The study of the formation of the film's narrative structure as a sequence of alternating rasas demonstrates the preservation of principles of organization in accordance with the canon of the treatise on art "Natyashastra," extending into the 20th century and affecting national Indian cinema. The main conclusion of the work is the identification of the principle of creating the dynamics of the main character's image, which lacks psychological development. The maturation of such a character is marked by changes in rasa, rather than alterations in the plastic organization of the frame or the tempo of editing phrases. The proposed method may prove effective in the research of both classical and contemporary Indian films for the purpose of comparative analysis of cinematic languages and deepening the understanding of both scriptwriting and directorial strategies and approaches in Indian cinema.