"The World of Apu" is a tale joy of and tragedy, unmatched in its beauty and profound emotion. Satyajit Ray's final film in the Apu trilogy ranks with King Vidor's "The Crowd" and Carl Theodor Dreyer's "Ordet" as a cinema landmark of family life. But it far exceeds those films in its visual poetry. Apu's journey with a friend and his unplanned marriage sets the stage for a story of domestic life in all its simple joy and awful despair. The serene, contented beauty of the girl is a soaring vision, matched in its humanity only by the broken heart of Apu when she dies. The pages of an unfinished novel, a life's work floating in the mountain air like the seeds of a dandelion, become the symbol of Apu's devastation. The rebirth of life and hope realized in the child illustrates a fundamental belief of Hinduism. Beautifully photographed and edited, "The World of Apu" is a masterpiece of film as narrative storytelling. It is the most "Indian" of all Indian films.
96% - Critics
95% - Audience
8.5Keywords: dying and deathnovelistarranged marriagebroken engagementcalcutta
Plot summary
Liberated from any form of attachment that was holding him back from immersing himself into Kolkata's urban lifestyle after Sarbojaya's death in Aparajito (1956),Apu, now an optimistic, 23-year-old idealist and struggling author, has no other choice but to give up his degree for lack of financial resources. Being no longer accountable to anyone, Apu barely manages to scrape by, content with a meagre income and a humble roof over his head, until an unforeseen complication during the wedding of Aparna, the delicate sister of his university friend, Pulu, leads to an act of kindness and a wonderful, youthful romance. All his life, death, and the sense of loss, have been accompanying Apu in his perpetual odyssey of spirituality and knowledge; now, a lifetime of joys, hopes, sadness, and tragedies culminate in the most momentous decision of his life. But, life's mysterious duality cannot be defined by tragedy. What more could one ask for than a child's charming, wide-eyed smile?
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David Jeffers - The cornerstone of Indian film.
there's more to Indian cinema than musicals
When Americans hear the name "Apu", they're likely to think of the Kwik-E-Mart owner on "The Simpsons". Well, here's a different one. "Apur Sansar" (called "The World of Apu" in English) tells the story of a Calcutta man and how he has to deal with his various experiences. I should identify that this is not a movie for people with short attention spans. We may think of Indian movies as over-the-top musicals, but those are specifically Hindi movies; this is a Bengali movie. Apparently, it's part of a trilogy. I have to admit that this is the only installment that I've ever seen. But if this is any example, the other two should be interesting. Definitely worth seeing.
Part Three
This final installment in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy, follows Apu's life as an orphaned adult aspiring to be a writer as he lives through poverty, and the unforeseen turn of events.
The World of Apu has been influential across the world. In Gregory Nava's 1995 film My Family, the final scene is duplicated from the final scene of Apur Sansar. The film's influence can also be seen in famous works such as Martin Scorsese's 1976 New Hollywood film Taxi Driver, several Philip Kaufman films, and Key's 2004 Japanese visual novel Clannad. References to The World of Apu are also found in several films by European filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, and in Paul Auster's 2008 novel Man in the Dark where two characters have a discussion about the film.
Personally, I just do not see how this is one of those "perfect" films that scores 100% and rates high enough to be in the Top 250. I found it rather boring, as I do with most Indian films. What am I missing?