Plot

Following his father's death, a boy leaves home to study in Calcutta, while his mother must face a life alone.

After living awhile in Benares, 10 year old Apu and his mother move in with her uncle in a small Bengali village. Apu enters a local school, where he does well. By the time he graduates, he has a scholarship to study at a college in Calcutta. So off he goes. His mother is torn by his leaving, and by his growing independence. She loves her son very much and wants him to succeed, but she does not want to be left alone.—John Oswalt <jao@jao.com>

Varanasi, former Benares, 1920s northern India. Having lost everything after Pather Panchali (1955), devastated Harihar and broken Sarbojaya leave forever behind their memory-laden home in the bamboo forest to move to the bustling holy city with their son, Apu. But there, at the steep ghats on the banks of the sacred Ganges River, a challenging, hand-to-mouth existence awaits the Ray family. And once again, unfulfilled dreams burden sad-eyed Sarbojaya with more worries. As the family buries the past in the remote Bengal village of Mansapota, Apu nurtures aspirations beyond life as the community's priest. As a result, Apu catches the train to Kolkata after winning a scholarship to study at a prestigious university. But goodbyes are never easy. Can Apu prove his worth and spread his wings in the big city of dreams?—Nick Riganas