Le salon de musique

Beautifully shot and with a great soundtrack, but a rather dreary story, which is a critique of idle members of the traditional zamindar (aristocrat) class, a celebration of traditional Indian music, and a depiction of the end of an era. In the film, a damn fool of a middle-aged man (Chhabi Biswas) squanders his family fortune as the portraits of four generations of his ancestors look on in his music room, where he hosts large groups of friends to lavish performances despite his dwindling funds. He likes lolling about, smoking a hookah and drinking cognac, and it's clear he likes the music as well, but what he likes even more is the prestige and status that he has, and lording it over one of his neighbors he views (and treats) as inferior.

I loved seeing and hearing the various musical instruments, the wonderful vocalizations, and the performances - especially that dancer towards the end - they were something special. The rest of it had meaning, but was less compelling for me, despite all the craft and attention to detail director Satyajit Ray put in. It would have been more interesting had we had gotten more depth and insight into some of the other characters. Certainly worth watching though.

Just to appreciate Roshan Kumari's legendary performance -one of the most mesmerizing dancing sequences ever filmed, this masterpiece deserves a repeated viewing.

There is something savage, auto-destructive but also the purest in form about the landlord's passion for music and childish vanity in front of his peers, which made me ponder over the place of music in our society long after the credits end. In the age of MTV and MP3, we are used to the idea of carrying routinely our favorite songs everywhere from streets to bathroom, and it's pity that we hardly experience anymore the authentic ambiance of intimate music gathering such as miraculously acted and filmed in Jalsaghar. Music in other era and other place must have been high point and extra-ordinary moment of community life, source of the spiritual inspiration for civil life as well as its destruction. The decor and lighting of the music room is sumptuous and otherworldly, in perfect contrast with the wearisome monotony of domestic scenes the declining aristocrat is forced to endure.

After leaving an indelible mark on the global stage with his pure & poetic The Apu Trilogy, Satyajit Ray brings his restraint touch & deft eye to the more conventional narrative structure in Indian cinema and subverts it from inside out. Jalsaghar aka The Music Room isn't devoid of the musical & dance segments that are a given in most Indian films but instead of serving as mere entertaining interludes, they play an integral role in the plot.

Written, produced & directed by Ray, the film concerns a feudal landlord's passion for music & quest for social respect in the rapidly changing India and his refusal to change with the times that leads to his undoing. Through his dwindling fortunes & decadent lifestyle, Ray attempts to illustrate the contrast between old & new India and the fate that awaits those who cling on to their obsolete past & are unwilling to accept or acknowledge the modern society.

Our protagonist isn't shown in a negative light however. Instead, the film observes his all-consuming obsession with music, pride in his social prestige & envy for his next-door neighbour's increasing fortunes, and how they contribute to his downfall. Chabbi Biswas' performance is nearly flawless, and he brings the ill-fated landlord to life with all his flaws & virtues in tact. Also adding to the experience are opulent set pieces, beautiful camerawork, and neat use of classical Indian music & dance.

Overall, Jalsaghar presents the Bengali filmmaker tightening his grasp around his craft, and is one of his most impressive directorial efforts. Much worthy of broader viewership and having aged like a fine wine, the film's slow pace & overlong finale may not appease everyone but its elegant & authentic portrait of India undergoing an essential transformation after independence and the tragedy of a prideful man who's destroyed by his own hubris makes it an enduring classic of Indian cinema. Thoroughly recommended.

Good heavens! This is about as far from Bollywood movies (cheesy musicals) as one could get. Jalsaghar is a poignant rendering of social transition at the personal level -- the indigent aristocrat whose delusive and self-destructive obsession with bringing his music room back to life shields him from the reality of his family's economic and social collapse, and indeed hastens it; the showy nouveau-riche neighbor who embodies the rise of a new social order based on economic achievement rather than aristocratic roots and inherited wealth. There are parallels to Chekhov and Faulkner (Snopeses and Sartorises). The black and white images (the white horse!) are stunning. I saw this film in the 1980s, and remember it more clearly than the movie I saw last night. It is truly a classic.

At the time I post this, only 123 people have cast a vote of any kind for The Music Room. What a shame.

Satyajit Ray is one of the greatest directors of all-time and The Music Room is his masterpiece. Correction: The Music Room is a masterpiece of world cinema.

How to describe this movie? In Hollywood lingo, you could call it Citizen Kane meets Black Narcissus with a big dose of King Lear. Of course, if you called it that, they'd shelve the project and spend the money on the sequel to XXX.

Pity poor Biswambhar Roy, a king in a lonely castle. He's lost not only his family but his entire way of life. He is a mistake. A forgotten man waiting in his empty shell of a world.

He spends the last remnants of his once vast fortune on a final, lavish musical performance in his crumbling home, a last-ditch attempt to connect to the pride and joy he once felt in his life.

Not that he is innocent. He is proud and oblivious, spoiled and selfish. But surely not a bad man. Merely a displaced man. So we can cheer as he is granted one last moment of happiness and weep for him as he meets his inevitable end.

How is that Satyajit Ray remains unknown even to many die-hard cineastes in the States? I hope one of the companies will come along soon and release some of his work on DVD.