Irony and juxtaposition are used very effectively in this film. The director has a habit of allowing the protagonist to find some joy or momentary salvation, but soon afterwards - sometimes immediately - that joy turns to seriousness at best and disappointment at worst. Highs and lows, in other words, are put into solid motifs that lead the viewer into the depth of the personal feelings of Apu. He loves the rain, jumps around in it like a little boy on his birthday, but soon his landlord comes in to demand rent. He receives a letter that tells him a publisher is interested in his manuscript but in the next scene he is turned down for a teaching position.

More examples are found throughout the film; he attends a wedding, a joyful time in the lives of the couple and their families, but it turns out the bridegroom has serious mental problems; Apu then marries the bride himself (because in Hindu culture if she does not marry the very day that her wedding has been planned, she will never marry) and is very happy but his wife dies during childbirth. It goes on and on like this, highs and lows, happiness and sorrow, portraying not only Indian culture alone but indeed the universal human condition.

What's the lesson here in cultural dynamics? Is that what Ray is sharing with us through his characters and the plot? In fact, zeroing in on the wedding dilemma, the filmmaker seems to be negatively critiquing the...

Is it Ray's intention to show the absurdity of a pre-arranged wedding in Hindu culture? The pratfalls of pre-arranged weddings are shown very well in this film. The family is disgraced. The bride's reputation is ruined - and she is brutally hurt because the parents prior to the wedding didn't carefully vet the potential bridegroom. Through it all, the protagonist Apu falls asleep by the river, with the soft flow of water past him and the dunes in the distance.
When his friend wakens Apu, the protagonist is treated to a startling fact - that there will be no wedding because there is no bridegroom. The camera catches so many emotions on Apu's face throughout the film, but these scenes bring out the most drama in his face. The headlines might read, "Unemployed writer, living in poverty, becomes a Hindu hero by substituting for a lunatic bridegroom." And when Apu agrees to this absurd arrangement - to marry the bride lest she be cursed in her culture - the film falls into a lovely moment of understatement. Instead of saying, "Yes I will marry her," Apu simply states to his friend, "You'll have to lend me a shirt, and I must shave first."

This film is a wonderful portrayal of life in the slow lane of poverty, of family, and of personal sacrifice. Life knocks Apu down again and again and pushes him all over the map of emotions. But he goes about wandering and when he finally returns, to see his son for the first time, it gives the film a warm sense of humanity. The starkness of the pictures, backed by the wonderful emotions provided by Ravi Shankar's musical score, give this a compelling and haunting story worth seeing again.

The World of Apu. Directed by Satyajit Ray. Sony Pictures Classics. (1959).