Just when the hero, a twentyish Apu, proclaims his happiness at feeling free and young with all of life before him, fate plays its hand. He is nevertheless blissfully happy in his surprising marriage, and the scenes with his young wife truly touching. So much so that I knew they wouldn't last. I thought at first that Apu himself would wreck it with his need to be free and write etc. That might have taken the film to a different plane of misery and would have connected his development with something selfish we saw of him in the second part. But what happens connects instead with his other losses - sister, then parents - in preceding films, all linked mysteriously with trains coming and going and their piercing whistles. Again, images from this film will likely always stay with me - e.g. Apu closing his shutter to not be seen by a sexy girl across the way - why? What did that say about him? I liked the casting of both the child bride and the boy she bears Apu, which is almost her spitting image, and ends the film with some hope that Apu will be happier - though judging from the series as a whole, it would be a very tentative hope at best! Again, watching this, I felt I had gone to India because of the authenticity of locations, acting and music, and the lovely b/w photography.
Review of The World of Apu
