Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, the prodigal son of Bengal, remains an icon of breathtaking narrative style with a distinguished body of work. Today, on his 129th birth anniversary, this article revisits the instance when the author met the brilliant Satyajit Ray for the collaboration that weaved and shaped itself in the history of Bengal’s art and literature.

The 1956 film is essentially about Apu's adolescence and growing apart from his mother. The film highlights the underlying conflict of the mother-son relationship.