The World of Apu (1959) is the concluding segment of one of the greatest film series ever made, Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy. The World of Apu can be fully successful as an individual viewing experience but it is also readily experienced as a continuation and perfect culmination of the two preceding films. Certainly, viewers who have seen the predecessor films will recognize Apu as the same person who they got to know at earlier stages of his life in Pather Panchali and Aparajito.

Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) is widely regarded as India’s all-time greatest film director. His films explore universal human themes and truths, expressed with heartfelt eloquence as well as masterful control of filmmaking technique. Although the themes are universal, in the background of each story we discover many of the fundamental characteristics of Indian culture: the conflict between tradition and modernization, a distinctive approach to the concepts of love and marriage, the emphasis on duty and acceptance over desire and passion, limitations on opportunity related to gender and the caste system, the vestiges of imperialism, and the pervasive poverty of both the cities and rural communities.

The Story: The story of The World of Apu can be seen as progressing through three segments – a trilogy within The Apu Trilogy in a sense. The first segment picks up after the death of Apu’s mother that was the culminating event in Aparajito. Apu’s college funds have run out and he must leave the university with only an intermediate degree and a letter of introduction from a professor. Soon, the young-adult Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee) is living in a small Calcutta apartment. He is a struggling writer, three months behind on his rent and under threat of eviction. Even so, we see that Apu has a pleasant, upbeat nature. He appreciates the small joys of life, such as showering in a summer rain and playing his flute. There are positive signs as well when he gets a short-story published in a journal. Apparently, his artistic aspirations are not totally without foundation. He sells some of his precious books to make ends meet and looks for work. Jobs are scarce, however, and he is turned down for an opening for a grade school teacher because he has only an intermediate degree. Another opportunity, in the labeling department of a pharmaceutical firm, is rote work that is beneath his abilities. Apu is simultaneously underqualified and overqualified.

Apu’s old friend Pulu (Swapan Mukherjee), from his college days, tracks him down and encourages Apu to take a six-day break and join him at his cousin’s wedding in the village of Khuina, some one-hundred miles away. Pulu describes the beauties of the village in such appealing terms that Apu cannot refuse. As they travel, they talk about this and that including the novel that Apu is writing. Pulu comments that the details of the novel sound a lot like Apu’s life except for the “love interest” that he has introduced. Apu, it seems, has yet to have a girlfriend. Pulu kids him about his “lack of qualifications” on that subject. When they arrive at Khuina, Apu is introduced to the bride’s mother. She takes a shine to the handsome and pleasant Apu, comparing him to the deity Krishna. The lovely bride, Aparna (Sharmila Tagore), is being prepared by her bridesmaids. When the groom’s wedding train arrives, the groom turns out to be mentally unstable. How much of this is a sudden, new development and how much a long-standing problem is unclear, but the bride’s mother, to her credit, forces her husband to call off the wedding. The entire family is distraught because if the bride is not wedded at the appointed hour, she will be forever cursed and never marry, according to Hindu tradition. Apu, being probably the only young, male non-relative present is earnestly recruited, but initially refuses, calling the idea insane. When the shock has passed, however, and as the idea ricochets through his cranium, he decides, in an act of nobility, to come to the bride’s rescue. Perhaps it also occurred to him that he would have little likelihood of securing a better match by his own designs and that he had better take the good luck of the moment. In a beautifully rendered ceremony, Apu and Aparna are joined together, having never previously met. We sense from their respective looks that neither is entirely displeased by this turn of fate.

The second part of the story deals with Apu and Aparna getting to know one another. It is certainly fascinating to imagine two people bound together in marriage learning about one another from the ground up. The initial scene is especially poignant. The two are standing on opposite sides of their elaborate canopied wedding bed, which has been intricately decked out in flowers, with incense burners puffing aromatically all about. They are not only total strangers, but both are shy and both are virgins. They have not even the idea about how to talk with one another, much less the knowledge of how to be intimate. Apu wonders if she is disappointed at having such a husband as he and asks her what her cousin Pulu has told her about him. All that she knows of him is two things: that he is an orphan and a writer. He asks her if she is prepared for a life of poverty, reminding her of the wealthy life in which she has been raised. Without looking at him, Aparna says simply, “Yes.” This is a credible answer for Indian culture, where marriages are arranged and one is expected to accept what comes from it and make the best of it.

Later, back in Calcutta, Apu takes a job as a tutor and they begin life together, coyly observing one another, establishing roles, initially a bit wary but gradually becoming playful and respectful. Bit by bit, they fall madly in love, at least to the extent that love Indian-style can ever be described as “mad.” Viewers of the film see no overt physical displays of their affection – not a single kiss or embrace is exchanged. The greatest expression of physical intimacy that is displayed is when Aparna sets her head on Apu’s shoulder at one point. Instead, we observe little evidences of femininity added to the apartment and to Apu’s life – a new curtain on a window and a note penned onto Apu’s pack of cigarettes that reads, “Remember, you promised only one after each meal.” He reads it and smiles. When Apu expresses his worry to Aparna that he is not supporting her well enough and talks about taking a second tutoring job and hiring a servant, she reassures him by saying she would be happy if he quit the job he has so that they could spend more time together. Ray has effectively crafted this section of the story to illustrate how love develops and is expressed in Indian culture. When Aparna becomes pregnant, it is decided that she will go to her parents home for the last two months of her pregnancy to have the child (obviously a more suitable place for her to give birth than in their small apartment in Calcutta). Despite the practicality of the decision, we see that they are both pained to be separated. They exchange many increasingly romantic letters during this time.

The third part of this film begins with the arrival of a relative of Aparna in Calcutta with news that is utterly devastating for Apu. The baby came early and Aparna died in childbirth. Apu’s first reaction is anger. He even strikes the messenger. Later, he is prostrated by emotional pain. When he recovers enough after several days just to walk about, he contemplates throwing himself in front of a train. Unable to quench his sorrow in death, he resolves to leave Calcutta and all that reminds him of Aparna and the past. He takes up a nomadic life, wandering about aimlessly through the countryside, taking only enough work to survive. At one moment of utter despair, he throws the novel that he had worked on for years into the wind. He has given up on life. He works for a while in a coal mine. Five years pass in this manner. Apu’s appearance has changed; he has acquired a thick beard.

Once again, it is Pulu who marks the transitions in Apu’s life. Pulu visits the family of his deceased cousin, Aparna, and finds Apu’s son, Kajal, suffering the effects of being without parental care. Although his grandparents care for his basic needs, they have too little remaining enthusiasm for parenting and Kajal runs wild and acts out his behavioral problems. Apu has never met his son, though he has sent money orders occasionally. Apu blames the boy for Aparna’s death and cannot forgive or forget. Pulu tracks down Apu using his last return address. Apu learns his son’s name for the first time. Humbled by Pulu’s comments, Apu finally appears at the home of Aparna’s parents and meets Kajal. Kajal, who has long fantasized about his father in Calcutta, won’t accept that Apu is that man. He is deeply hurt at having been rejected for so long. Apu tries to break through Kajal’s resistance, but the efforts are largely unsuccessful. As Apu prepares to leave, Kajal follows him a ways down the path. Apu invites him again to come with him and this time Kajal accepts and runs to his arms. They will go to live in Apu’s ancestral village – just as Apu’s father had returned to that very same ancestral village immediately prior to the opening of the first film of the triology, Pather Panchali. Life has thus come full circle in accordance with the Hindu view of existence. The ending of The World of Apu could just as well have been the beginning.

Themes: The principle theme of The World of Apu is how we deal with unbearable tragedy. It is fully understandable that the death of Aparna is more than Apu could bear. Before Aparna miraculously entered his life, Apu was a young man without love. He had lost everyone in his family: first his sister, then his father, and finally his mother. He had learned to survive in lonely independence, blissfully unaware of the absence of love in his life. When he unexpectedly found himself married to Aparna, he discovered the blessing of deep love. In a few short months, that too was stripped away from him by her death. His pain was understandable but his manner of dealing with that pain was dysfunctional. When he felt the pain as sorrow, he contemplated suicide, but could not do it. He transformed the pain into anger, first at the messenger who delivered the tragic news and then at the son whose birth had accompanied Aparna’s death. Instead of either despondency or anger, the better way of dealing with his pain would have been sublimation. He loved Aparna and should have recognized his opportunity to continue to manifest his love for her by caring for their mutual offspring. Ultimately, he came to understand that the best way to relieve his pain was to act on it constructively – to direct it in some useful way – though he lost five years in coming to that realization.

The characters of the Apu Trilogy are not unalloyed heroes or role models. Instead Ray presents us with characters that are basically morally decent and good natured people with all too human weaknesses and limitations. The message in the end is basically a positive one. No tragedy, no matter how initially devastating, forecloses all opportunity for future happiness. Life is full of transitions – Apu’s life was full of transitions, mostly marked by the death of loved ones – and we and he have to make the most out of each phase and not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the pains that belonged to another phase. Hope springs eternal. We must sublimate pain and not flounder in sorrow or anger. We must especially avoid irrational interpretations of the cause of our pains, such as attaching blame to ourselves or others where no reasonable blame actually exists.

Production Values: As in all of Ray’s work, the direction is clean and unadorned. He avoids melodrama, yet delivers both characters and a story that are emotionally involving. The cinematography is characteristically gorgeous.

The acting in The World of Apu is superb, continuing the same high standard established in the earlier installments of the trilogy. The sublimely beautiful and remarkably talented Sharmila Tagore helped to make up for the loss of Karuna Banerjee, who anchored the first two segments of the trilogy as Apu’s mother. Ray takes full advantage of Tagore’s beauty, photographing her sumptuously and with exquisite sensitivity. Tagore later appeared in the film Mississippi Masala (1984). Soumitra Chatterjee did outstanding work as the adult Apu. He appeared in many later Ray films including Charulata (1964) and The Home and the World.

Bottom-Line: The World of Apu is as wrenching and enthralling as the previous segments of the Apu Trilogy. As the final segment, it had the job of providing closure and it furnished a fittingly uplifting culmination. The full trilogy can be purchased as a boxed-set of three VHS cassettes. It is also available on DVD, though the DVD version provides no special restoration quality and no extras. The World of Apu is in Bengali with English subtitles. It has a running time of 106 minutes. I highly recommend this film, especially after watching its two predecessors in the Apu Trilogy. There is hardly any film directing that can match that of Satyajit Ray for craftsmanship.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from India:

Aparajito
Charulata
Earth
Jalsaghar
Kadosh
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Mother India
Pather Panchali
Salaam Bombay!
The Terrorist

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12