Apu Sansar (El mundo de Apu)

After watching 'Pather Panchali' & 'Aparajito'; the 1st and 2nd two epics of Apu Trilogy, I unable to control myself to wait for sometime to watch the third epic 'The World of Apu' directed by Academy Honorary Award winning(in 19992), the great director Satyajit Ray. Satyajit Ray paints how much covered a bitter pain that breaks someone's heart in his life. Someone means the main character Apu; which half of life is already reflected in his 1st & 2nd epic.

It is seen that Apu had lost his elder sister and father before he knows the value of life. His mother struggles for his life and making him into a educated person though he should turn into a priest as his their family profession. But director have no mercy upon him. His mother had passed away when he was studying at Kolkata after 10th passing. The story ends up here and so we don't know what happened in his life after everything lost.

At the 1st light of "The World of Apu" we have seen that Apu is grown up and become turn into a healthy young man, struggling to live without any distress of his past life. He learns to live into a new life. He lives as a tenant in a small room of Kolkata unable to give rent for several months. The story is running on and then suddenly changes the track. We are happy to see his delightful face after getting his life partner or wife suddenly after many years. Now he lives in a romantic world. But again the track changes. He losses everything. After 5 years he is ready to meet a boy named Kajal(5 years old) who always wait to see his father's face. Is Kajal Apu's son? If yes, does Kajal accept him as a father?...to know everything you should watch the movie which is easily available on torrent.

There have no error in direction. You can feel a different taste. Acting is everywhere perfect. Great work is done by Soumitra Chatterjee(as Apu), Sharmila Tagore(as Aparna, wife of Apu) and other actors. Alok Chakravarty who acts in a very sort periods as the 5 years old boy touches the heart. Director is successful to reflect the story in his three trilogy. So before watching Apur Sansar(3rd part,called it in Bengali) you should watch 1st Pather Panchali and then Aparajito. Though it is released in 1955-1959, still it is the best i ever seen.

About midway through Apur Sansar there is an interjection of a film in the style of typical Indian cinema. The contrast in Ray's approach with his classic trilogy is astonishing, considering the mileau in which it emerged. Filmmaking in the 1950's in Hollywood as well as India was studio-driven with light-weight stories having little connection with reality. As another commentator pointed out, this film is closer to the Italian realism films such as "The Bicycle Thief". Every shot is a masterpiece of composition and lighting. It does not intrude on the story, but advances it. Likewise, the music composed by Ray, is natural and integral to the scene. This ranks with the all-time greatest watershed movies.

This movie is Ray at his best. Its sublime. Its distilled to perfection. You need not hear the dialogs or read the subtitles to follow and appreciate it. The visuals and background score tell the store more eloquently. The movie has a soul which will get destroyed if you make even the slightest change to the story, acting, cinematography, music etc. Ray has brought out the best in his actors. They are not experienced actors though both of the leading pair later go on achieve mega success as movie stars. If you blink an eye, you will miss out on the emotions captured. For example, when Aparna is brought to her new home, there is moment in which she matures – from a girl to a woman – while gazing out of the torn curtain. There are several such brief moments. The dialog is minimalist but enchanting. The letter from Aparna to Apu captures love in all its glory – longing, desire, concern and trust. Its movie-making at its best.

"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.

The final episode of the Trilogy takes us to a young adult Apu. IMdb seems to have missed the British Film Award that this and Sathyajits' other two episodes (Song of the Road, Unvanquished) received.

This movie together with the other two movies are a monumental work in movie making. The way the story is portrayed, and the use of many details, enrich the emotional experience it provides. One can recall the way the screen of the movie theatre fades into the window of the horse carriage, or the way the hole on the window curtain reverberates with the spotted decorations on the actress face and etc.

This a "must see" movie for all, in the different ways emotions are expressed and the way it takes the audience in a roller coater ride of emotions. It is an enriching and a moving experience. It reinforces and reinvigorates the humanity within each of us.

To enjoy the movie most, viewers should see the first two episodes in sequence before viewing "Apur Sangsar."