Page 49 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

36 The Apu Trilogy

The World of Apu: Apu

When the third film, The World of Apu, opens, Apu is a gradu-
ate without either a job or much desire to get one. He is writing
a novel about his struggle to live and hopes to become a writer.
Living alone in a dingy garret room above a railway yard in the
sprawl of Calcutta, with only his books and his flute for com-
pany, he is a figure ripe for romance – something of which he has
not an iota of practical experience, as his old college friend Pulu
bluntly points out. Pulu has tracked Apu down, determined
to drag his friend off to his cousin Aparna’s wedding in a vil-
lage beside a river in East Bengal (now Bangladesh). Over a
much-needed decent meal in a restaurant, Apu gives in to Pulu’s
request, and in the boat on the way to the village, Pulu reads his
manuscript and excitedly proclaims its quality.
To his great surprise, Apu goes to the village a bachelor and
returns a married man; it turns out the bridegroom is mad and
Apu, again giving in to his friend Pulu, agrees to take his place,
lest Aparna be cursed by orthodox Hindu tradition to remain

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