If there's one word that would best describe Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy that would have to be universality. Which is all the more impressive when considering that the movies are so deeply rooted in Indian (and Bengali) culture and traditions. Everyone can identify with the characters in the movies, with the decisions they make, with the difficult moments they go through, with the emotions they feel, as they capture the human nature in a genuine and primal form. A true master when it comes to exploring the human condition, Satyajit Ray creates moments that feel very natural but moments that have layers upon layers of subtly different nuances. It doesn't matter if a scene shows a mundane activity or if…

Spoilers ahead.

Despite its title and male central character, the Apu Trilogy is, in fact, a series about women. The first two films are built upon the backs of women; built upon their strength, and held aloft by their suffering. In The World of Apu, on the other hand, women are largely present through their absence, and in the way the behavior and choices of Apu contrast to those of the women the series has allowed to know.

For Apu, Apu is the whole world. What matters are his feelings; what matters is his talent; what matters is his desire to be free. Someone with talent like his, he announces, shouldn't have to be a clerk — instead, presumably, he…

God, the Apu Trilogy really is nearly flawless.

With trilogies, I’m always worried that when two of the three films are good, the final one will be mediocre. In addition to that, I think most finales have a tendency to be underwhelming or disappointing. So after giving the first two films in the Apu trilogy 9s (which will probably go higher as time passes), I was a little worried going into Apu Sansar that I’d have a Godfather 3 situation. Instead what I discovered was the perfect continuation and culmination of what I think is the best coming of age story ever told in film.

To me, it’s the small moments that resonate. It’s Apu being woken up by his sister…

Since finishing Apur Sansar, the final film in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the film's use of train imagery. How these machines of progress become more prevalent in each film. How they tie the three movies together to paint a picture of a rapidly changing India. How trains represent so much over the course of Apu's story.

In Pather Panchali, the distant sound of the train represents the fast approaching future. Rarely seen, but a sign that something is encroaching... modernity, the western world, globalization. In Aparajito, trains similarly signal a sort of advancement, this time through the role they play in Apu's education. The rails are set on an upward trajectory, taking…

The World of Apu, or Apur Sansar, is a stunning finale to an amazing trilogy. Across these three films we go on such an incredible journey, one infused with deep humanity and universality.

The World of Apu is a film of adult life, no longer centred on the child Apu. Here he faces rent, work, and money troubles. He must survive in modern India, an India of cities and industry, far removed from the rural simplicity shown in Pather Panchali. What would be shown in a field or landscape in that film becomes railway tracks and small courtyards in The World of Apu. Apu's world falls in on itself, as the freeing potential one has in childhood becomes more and…

The World Of Apu

Child. Teen. Adult. An entire lifetime in three films. Apur Sansar is not about what life gives. It’s about what it takes and yet what we choose to give back anyway.

Journey From A Boy To A Man
Apu has lost too much by the time we meet him here. He’s not a little boy anymore, but he’s not a man either, not yet. Apu is an aspiring writer, trying to make ends meet. He drifts through Calcutta, poor, jobless, he's just existing and not living. But as we know that life is a game that deals us our fate.

A Blessing & A Curse
He didn't ask for love but out of nowhere he’s pulled into…