The World of Apu

The World of Apu (অপুর সংসার, 1959) is the final chapter of Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy — watch it online on iFILM. Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore both make their screen debuts here, under cinematographer Subrata Mitra's camera.

Apu is an adult now, sharing a cramped Calcutta room with an unfinished novel and no clear income. A college friend invites him to a village wedding, where the groom turns out to be mentally unwell and the bride — Aparna — faces permanent disgrace under local custom if she doesn't marry that day. On impulse, Apu steps in. He marries her, takes her back to the city, and the two of them begin something tentative and genuine. A year later she dies in childbirth. Apu abandons his son and disappears for five years.

Ray made this the quietest and most unsparing film of the three. No dramatic confrontations, no redemptive speeches — just a man who cannot metabolize grief, and a child who has grown up waiting for him. The Apu Trilogy was ranked among the greatest films ever made by the Sight & Sound poll. Stream The World of Apu online on iFILM.