Summary
A friend goes over to Sarbajaya, who seems upset. As Sarbajaya cries, the friend says, "You can't go on like this? Why didn't you tell me?" Sarbajaya confides in the friend that she hasn't received word from Hari in 5 months, and the friend offers to give her and Durga some food. When she offers Sarbajaya some money, Sarbajaya refuses, so the friend just leaves it there.
Suddenly, Apu comes running through the forest with a letter. Sarbajaya dries her eyes and takes it from him. It's from Hari, and it says that he has finally been able to earn money. Sarbajaya smiles at the good news.
We see shots of water; lily pads, ripples, bugs darting across the surface. We then see a dog resting with a small cat. Sarbajaya lies on the ground, while Durga applies some makeup. The scene shifts and we see Durga wandering through the forest, and returning home. Durga says a prayer to the Mother Goddess, as a storm begins to amass. It is monsoon season, and we see Apu running home through a large field.
As the monsoon begins, we see a disturbance in the lily pads, and Sarbajaya takes some laundry down from the line. The scene shifts and we see a man sitting next to a pond as it begins to rain. He raises an umbrella, as nearby, Apu runs for cover under a tree and watches Durga as she washes herself in the rain. Apu calls to Durga and she stays in the rain, teasing him, before joining him. They sit under the shelter of a tree.
Later, we see a doctor examining Durga, and asking to see her tongue as Apu, Sarbajaya, and Sarbajaya's friend look on. A man asks Sarbajaya when Hari is supposed to be back, and Sarbajaya tells them that he is due back within a month. The doctor gives Sarbajaya instructions for what to do if Durga's fever rises, and tells them that there is no cause for alarm.
Durga pulls Apu towards her and tells him that when she's better they will go look at the trains again, and they smile at each other.
Later, we see Durga lying in bed, while her mother checks her temperature. She puts a cold compress on her daughter's head as she sleeps and looks distressed. Incense burns nearby as Sarbajaya begins to fall asleep at her daughter's bedside. Suddenly, she is woken up by the wind and sees movement behind a nearby curtain. She then sees movement behind the front door, the wind is so strong. As the wind builds strength, it pushes open the curtain and then the front door, and Sarbajaya pulls something over to keep the door shut. Awaking, Durga cries out in pain, and Sarbajaya goes to her side.
The next day, Apu goes to Sarbajaya's friend's house to ask her to come look after Durga. She agrees, and follows Apu to the ancestral home, where a number of trees have fallen down. They wade through giant puddles to the home, and when she sees Sarbajaya holding Durga, the friend tells Apu to fetch her husband. Durga has died in the night, and the friend takes Sarbajaya's head on her shoulder to comfort her.
We see Sarbajaya pulling a bucket out of the well to collect water, then Apu brushing his hair.
Hari returns home jubilantly, with presents for his family members, including a sari for Durga. Sarbajaya throws herself at his feet, signaling to him that they have lost Durga. Hari becomes extremely distraught and cries out over his daughter's dead body.
That night Hari lies in bed weeping and we hear the sound of the passing train outside. The next day he examines paperwork, before telling Apu to clean up the shelves in the house. "I have no affection left for the family house," says Sarbajaya, as she and her friend fold cloths. "We couldn't save Durga," says the friend, and Sarbajaya says, "Other people live here quite happily." The mean aunt brings a basket of mangoes to Sarbajaya and tells her to take them on their journey, as they leave the ancestral home.
The aunt acknowledges that she has not done much to help Sarbajaya's family. She expresses regret for having become mean-spirited, and says that she wants to go away also. A group of elderly men arrive at the ancestral home and sit in the courtyard. One of them tells the family that he has been sick and could not come to visit as quickly as he wanted to. He acknowledges that the family is moving to the Benares, the place on the river referenced earlier where priests can make a little money.
The man tries to discourage Hari and his family from leaving, citing the fact that Hari is the third generation of his family to live in the ancestral home. "You could have asked our advice," he says, but Hari is sure in his decision to leave. He talks about the fact that he wanted to be a writer, that he wanted to educate Apu, and that his daughter has died. As he does do, Apu climbs up to a shelf and discovers the necklace that Durga denied having stolen. Quickly, he runs into the forest and throws it in a nearby pond, watching it submerge in the water.
We see a snake slithering through the rubble and into the ancestral home. Meanwhile, the family sets off in a cow-dragged wagon to their new life. Sarbajaya cries and Hari looks stoic as they go.
Analysis
Part of what hurts Sarbajaya so much about her situation is her deep sense of shame at her family's poverty. She feels completely unable to accept help or comfort from anyone else, even though that is precisely what she needs. In this section, we see the mean aunt be uncharacteristically kind to Sarbajaya, asking her about her situation and offering her money. Sarbajaya is completely distressed about having to accept money from someone, even a family member. Thus we see that her deep shame is part of what makes poverty so difficult for Sarbajaya.
Just when it seems that their financial situation will continue to worsen, Sarbajaya receives a letter with good news from Hari. Just as Hari has always suspected, God always does what's best, and the patriarch has finally earned some money. For the first time in the film, we see a genuine smile of relief spread across Sarbajaya's face as she internalizes the news and realizes she doesn't have to worry so much anymore.
The good news from Hari about a more stable financial situation is complemented by the onset of a large monsoon. Just as the cycle of poverty and hopelessness is cleansed by the news that Hari has finally made some money, the landscape is cleansed by the downpour of rain. The weather, a spiritual entity presided over by deities, responds to the news that happiness is within reach by cleansing the natural world around the family. While the family has felt stuck in a cycle of poverty, here they finally achieve the sense of material comfort that they have needed.
But grief is not far behind the good news, and while the monsoon symbolizes a cleansing moment for the family on a financial level, it soon becomes somber when Durga catches a fever and falls ill. Nature is more powerful than any of the social and financial concerns of the family, and on a particularly windy and rainy night during monsoon season, Durga dies. After so much struggle, it seems as if the family might be on their way to prosperity and happiness, but Durga's death casts a miserable shadow over this prospect. While Hari suggests that "Whatever God does is for the best," this tenet is tested time and time again by the difficulties the family faces.
While the film depicts the hopefulness and bright spirit of a family that is faced with huge pressures and sorrows, it is, at its core, a film about dashed hopes. At the end, even Hari, who has been so sure that God knows what is best, laments the fact that things have not turned out the way he planned. When the elders confront him about leaving the ancestral home, he tells them that he wanted to be a writer, but his manuscripts were destroyed, and that he wanted to educate his son, but could not. As he discusses his heartbreaking fate, the camera zooms in on Hari's expressive face slowly, which serves to reflect his grief, his acceptance of his fate, and his determination to leave home in search of better luck.
