– Giribala Dutt (Paresh's wife) Kali Banerjee – Priyotosh Henry Biswas (Paresh's personal secretary) Jahar Roy – Brajahari, The servant Gangapada Basu – Businessman Kachalu Haridhan Mukherjee– Police Inspector Chatterjee Bireswar Sen – Police Officer Moni Srimani – Doctor Nandi Chhabi Biswas, Jahar Ganguli, Pahari Sanyal, Kamal Mitra, Nitish Mukherjee, Subodh Ganguli, Tulsi Lahiri, Amar Mullick, Chandrabati Devi, Renuka Roy, and Bharati Devi also star as cocktail party guests. Other credits Art Direction – 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 Chhabi Biswas 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), 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 (Best Film). Preservation The Academy Film Archive preserved Parash Pathar in 2007. References External links Parash Pathar (SatyajitRay.org) 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