Impoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work. Alone, his wife, Sarbojaya, looks after her rebellious daughter, Durga, and her young son, Apu, as well as Harihar's elderly aunt Indir. The children enjoy the small pleasures of their difficult life, while their parents suffer the daily indignities heaped upon them.

Apu and his family have moved away from the country to live in the bustling holy city of Benares. As he progresses from wide-eyed child to intellectually curious teenager, eventually studying in Kolkata, we witness his academic and moral education, as well as the growing complexity of his relationship with his mother.

The spirit of a condemned 20-year-old student wanders through time, linking together four stories of people struggling for survival in this gritty meditation on poverty, natural disaster and political strife in India. A middle-class family's home is no match for the monsoons, while another clan's morality is compromised when famine strikes. Young boys smuggle rice, and politicians pity the poor while living in the lap of luxury.

A devout upper-class Hindu has a vision in a dream that his daughter-in-law is the human incarnation of the Goddess Kali and begins worshipping her.

A young Indian man has been assured by an uncle that all he needs to land a lucrative job is to show up to the interview in a Western style suit, but the morning of the interview is fraught with unexpected difficulties.

Deciding to start a school for girls named after his wife, a zamindar looks for a married couple to manage the establishment. They apply for and get the job. The two are not actually married; they posed as a couple to obtain the job. After a series of complications and delicate situations, love blooms between the two and they marry.

When a bride vanishes on her wedding day, a web of secrets and forbidden love is exposed. Caught in the crossfire are two young women, each battling against the constraints of caste and tradition. As their lives intertwine, a powerful story unfolds about the enduring power of love and the devastating consequences of societal expectations.

Played out in real time, several complex family dramas intersect in the landscape of the Himalayan foothills, allowing the Bengali auteur to examine the class and generational differences of postcolonial India while celebrating the hopes of a society in transition.

In 1967, Canadian documentarian James Beveridge traveled to Kolkata to film director Satyajit Ray at work. The resulting program, produced for the American public television series “The Creative Person,” features interviews with Ray, several of his actors and crew members, and film critic Chidananda Das Gupta.

The school of a remote and poor village shut down, the head master Krishna Prasanna (Chhabi) migrates to city in search of job. He moves with family, wife Labanya (Karuna), nubile daughter (Ranjana) and very young son. He takes residence with his wife's brother. He meets per chance one of his ex students, of whom he used to take free evening classes and many of whom got merit scholarship and became cream of society, a doctor, a judge, successful lawyer, manager of a big bank and so on. Can he cross the barrier and meet them? All have big bungalows and office with watchmen to stop. If he managed to meet them, will they recall his contribution and help their benefactor? If they do, what change he has to bring in himself? Can he?

Arko, a film student, invites Subir Banerjee, who played the legendary role of Apu, to attend an award ceremony in Germany. But the old man hesitates to accept the invitation.