Satyajit Ray avoids both sophomore slump & mid-trilogy letdown in the second of his three extraordinary APU films. Neatly divided into three sections (Father, Mother & Away From Home), the film has the calm, but steady movement of a mighty river (the Ganges, no doubt) as we follow the inevitable family losses against the growing dreams of Apu who makes the difficult jump from adorable 10 year old to gawky late teen while Ray’s casual visual sophistication takes us from Benares to Calcutta. Who but Dickens has so flawlessly delineated the adolescent pull between home comforts and the ‘world beyond?’
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