Before completing the trilogy, Ray had meanwhile directed the films The music room (1958) and The philosopher’s stone (1958). Apu is now an adult man who aspires to become a writer, falls in
love and marries his wife, whose death crushes him. This more mature work of Ray outlines the tense fatherhood of Apu and the changes he will suffer from mourning, loss and eventual reconciliation.
While in the first two films the influence from the austere forms of neorealism is evident, in the epilogue of the trilogy Ray introduces a more modern directing style in the dramaturgy, with the result that the film differs from the previous two, but is equally masterful.
