The World of Apu (1959)

• Year: 1959
• Released: 04 Oct 1960
• Country: India
• Adwords: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award5 wins & 3 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052572/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_world_of_apu
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Bengali
• MPA Rating: Not Rated
• Genre: Drama
• Runtime: 105 min
• Writer: Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Satyajit Ray
• Director: Satyajit Ray
• Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakravarty
• Keywords: dying and death, novelist, arranged marriage, calcutta, broken engagement,

8.5/10

The World of Apu Storyline

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, and 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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The World of Apu Movie Reviews

David Jeffers – The cornerstone of Indian film.

“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.

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.

I feel so out of sync with everyone else about this film and the trilogy.

“The World of Apu” is a film with an amazing IMDB score of 8.5. It’s also part of the so-called ‘Apu Trilogy’, three beloved films about the same character as he goes from age film to chronological adulthood. Along the way, there is lots of depression and losses…and Apu’s life is anything but pleasant. Critics adore the films….and I found myself at a loss for why. Director Satyajit Ray has done far better and, especially, more enjoyable films than these and when I finally saw these beloved films I was shocked how much I did NOT like them.

“The World of Apu” (“Apur Sansar”) begins after Apu is no longer in college. Oddly, instead of getting a good job, he barely gets by in Calcutta and seems quite happy living a subsistence lifestyle. Later, in what is the strangest weddings I can recall seeing in a film, he finds himself with a lovely new wife…who soon dies and he spends the rest of the film….depressed and feeling sorry for himself…and ignoring the son he’s never seen nor seems to have any interest in seeing.

Okay…let’s get to the heart of the problems I had with this and the other two films. While many like the directors slow, deliberate pacing…I found it to be glacially slow. I literally had to make myself coffee in order to stay awake as I watched. The next problem is that I had a hard time caring about anyone. First, if you cared about them, they would likely soon die (such as Apu’s sister in the film film, his parents in the second and his wife in the third). But it goes deeper. Most of these people didn’t seem to have much in the way of personality (apart from the wife) and when they died it was sad, but I had trouble even caring. Another major problem is Apu himself. I never connected with him and in the final films, “The World of Apu”, I found myself actually strongly disliking him. And, finally, considering that I didn’t care for the characters, the pacing was incredibly slow….and there really was no payoff for witnessing about six hours worth of misery.

Don’t get me wrong…. I have loved a few of Ray’s films and have loved quite a few other Indian films. I have nothing against Indian cinema. But I have to feel connected with and care about characters…and I just didn’t here or in any of the three films.