SPOILER ALERT!! Just now read the link to the Roger Ebert review of “Apu” and it gives a LOT of detail and analysis! Sorry if you have read it and didn’t want the plot elements so starkly outlined.
Do you have the link?
The last Apu film, The World of Apu, resembles Siddhartha’s journey to find wisdom. I so hoped for a happy ending that I was crying in anticipation. It may be my favorite of the 3 but the first, Pather Panchali (The Song of the Road), is deeply moving as well. It’s portrait of motherhood is both tender and harsh as is all of our childhood memories of mom...
Almost all the actors are amateurs in neo-realism style.