Jalsaghar

Plot synopsis:
Huzur Biswambhar Roy (Chhabi Biswas) is a middle-aged aristrocrat in India. His estate is suffering financially, but he continues to engage in the indulgences that he thrives off of. He has a palace that includes an opulent music room, replete with a huge chandelier, mirrored walls and various rugs. He also loves riding his white horse or his domesticated elephant. He is somewhat insulated and basically only interacts with his estate manager (Tulsi Lahiri), his servant (Kali Sarkar) and his beloved wife, Mahamaya (Padmadevi), and young, teenaged son, Khoka (Pinaki Sengupta).The wealthy Mahim Ganguly (Gangapada Basu), the son of a neighbor who was a debt collector, returns from the West to claim his late father's estate. Ganguly is a shrill social-climber and asks that Roy come to visit the estate. When Ganguly builds his own more modern music room, he plans an opening party. In competition, Roy claims and starts to plan his own music room party. This is despite his financial floundering.Mahamaya and Khoka go to visit friends via boat, while Roy stays behind. Upon their returning boatride, a storm hits and kills nearly everyone on board the boat, including Mahamaya and Khoka. Roy withdrawals into grieving and a long-lasting depression. The anguish he goes through ages him visably.Four years go by with Roy by himself in his palace. On day, Ganguly visits and boasts about a young female dancer who has discovered a new form dancing that is performing at his music room. The younger man's grating manners gives Roy the motivation to have yet another music room party. Roy's servant is estatic, but his estate manager is less than happy, since Roy is even more financially destitute than before. The music room is re-opened for the first time since his family's death and cleaned up. The female dancer is booked and several neighbors attend, including Ganguly. The dancer and the music group give a magnificent performance.Roy lingers in the music room throughout the night, long after the last guests leave. Drunkly, he pays tribute to his ancestors and his own portrait. However, his bliss turns to hysterical despair when the candles in the music room start to go out. Obviously mental unsound, his fear of the darkening room mystifies his faithful servant. The servant is able to open the drapes and Roy is comforted by the rising sun. Roy hears his white horse nay outside and claims that the horse is calling to him to ride him. His servant and estate manager are distressed, since Roy's dilapidated physical state makes horse riding dangerous now. Roy gallops off quickly on his horse with the estate manager and servant in pursuit. When he rides to the beach, he is distressed to see a beaching, broken boat, which reminds him of his departed family. He doesn't change the horse's course and, upon nearly colliding with the boat, the horse flips out and jumps in the air, knocking Roy roughly into the ground. Roy dies where he lays with his servant and estate manager standing over him.

Tags: flashback

Review:
The Greatest Film You Never Heard Of. 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?
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.
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?
WARNING -- PLOT DISCUSSED -- The jalsaghar is a great music hall in the mansion of the main character, a scion of a great landowning family.
When you read that Biswas was in real life completely tone-deaf, his creation of a music-lover is an astonishing accomplishment, both by him and by Satyajit Ray..
Just to appreciate Roshan Kumari's legendary performance -one of the most mesmerizing dancing sequences ever filmed, this masterpiece deserves a repeated viewing.
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.
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..
A Potpourri of Vestiges Review: Indian master filmmaker Satyajit Ray's profoundly evocative film that pays homage to classical Indian art forms.
Jalsaghar (aka "The Music Room") is a 1958 drama film directed by master Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Based on a short story of the same name by Bangla writer Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, Jalsaghar presents the tale of decline of a feudal lord in the pre-independence India.
Jalsaghar stars veteran Bangla actor Chhabi Biswas in the lead role of Huzur Biswambhar Roy. Huzur is the last of Zamindars—a dying breed of landlords who once formed the very basis of the Indian Feudal System.
Ray had initially thought of making a commercial film, based on some popular work of literature, which would incorporate popular Indian music.
It was more of an art-house work than a commercial movie that Ray had initially intended to make.
The music of Jalsaghar was written by the Indian composer and sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Ali Khan who was encouraged by Ray to compose musical pieces that would gel well with the movie's dark and gloomy tone.
The movie's melancholic musical composition and sombre art direction—the sublime use of mirrors, chandeliers, etc.—gives it a Gothic feel in the vein of American Film-Noir films of the '40s and '50s.In Jalsaghar, Ray highlights the perpetual conflict of tradition versus modernity while simultaneously examining the Indian caste system.
Jalsaghar is widely regarded as Satyajit Ray's most evocative film.
Jalsaghar with its universal motifs is also the most accessible of Ray's films, especially for foreign viewers.
Jalsaghar.is an essential watch for all Satyajit Ray fans as well as those who understand and appreciate intelligent cinema.
There is also a great deal of entertainment in this film: the music performances are excellent.
I wonder if Ray found the best musicians of the region and gave them roles as performers in the musical soirees: performers playing performers.
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.
For me the most rewarding films (or any art for that matter) are those that are acutely mindful of life and death and themselves in the midst of it.
And yet these poets bring us fire and light." The same with all art, much of which this film epitomizes."The Music Room", as it is known in English, is as much about the power of cinema as it is about that of music.
Bresson replied -" Satyajit's Ray's 'The Music Rom'.
An old film but one that made an indelible impression on my mind.""The Music Room" is a film that led to greatness by Satyajit Ray's devotion to a single mood: elegiac.
The acting by Chabi Biswas as the crumbling aristocrat Huzar Biswambhar Roy, cinematography by Subrata Mitra and music direction by Ustad Vilayat Khan all contribute immensely.
The film adaptation of Tarashankar Banerjee's short story but instead of creating an exact adaptation, Satyajit Ray gave his own spin to the film, making music, rather being an interlude, an integral part of the screenplay.
In "Jalsaghar or The Music Room", Ray examines the age-old conflict between the landed nobility and the rich without pedigree, between those who dwell in the past and those who embrace the future.
It's a fascinating snapshot of Indian culture in the 1930s, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of an inflated opinion of self-worth.Set in the 1930's with the emerging nouveau rich, Roy is the last in a long of rich patriarchs, stumbling as his estate diminishes but clinging till the end to his refined means.
The story flashes back some 15-20 years to a more glorious time when the younger Huzar, with his young son Khoka and wife Padma (the realist/pragmatist to Huzar's idealism) was the class of his region, hosting luxurious concerts in his home.
Likewise Mitra's camera often, and nearly always in relation to Roy, dollies inwards toward Roy. The movement not only serves to honor the character and make us feel more empathy toward him, but counterpoints the film's maze-like construction.
" Music Room" is a very visual film -- there are numerous ingenious shots (the insect dying in the glass, the bliss of an elephant being bathed in the river, the joy of the servants reopening the dusty music room, the way the chandelier gets reflected in the wine glass revealing Huzur's states of mind , and the last scene where a spider crawls up the leg of his own portrait) and a stirring dance sequence.
The camera movements reinforce the character and highlight film's maze-like construction and Roy being trapped in his past.
"The Music Room" remains as a majestic masterpiece of a man's monumental effort to cling to his illustrious legacy and hold his head high when his feet wither..
Elegant cinematography, a perfect location and an elaborate set, and three amazing musical performances, each more electrifying than the last.
And of course, there's Chhabi Biswas dominating in the lead (although the other actors are excellent as well), portraying a man caught between his pride and the changing times, and suffering the consequences.
The film isn't perfect -- for one thing, I'd like to see more time devoted to Khoka to help establish the emotional connection, not to mention Roy's wife -- but it is quite magnificent and captivating..
In the fourth feature film directed by Satyajit Ray, Jalsaghar, we are treated to a magnificent spectacle of musical performances, Hindu dance, and a powerful film thrown some place in the mix.
Jalsaghar tells the gloomy tale of a landlord living in Bengal whom has just lost his wife and beloved son in a horrid boating accident.
Biswas is exceptional in his performance of Roy by revealing a side to the character of near-perfect emptiness in a human being; he shows us what the empty body of a man can become.The film is a decorative wonder to watch and hear to any degree.
Later on in the film when we are introduced to the many performances which will be carried out in the landlord's music room, the film comes full circle as an audio delight as well.
Beautiful Hindu compositions are performed in full length throughout sweeping-music video like coverage scanning the pitch-perfect vocalists on to the unique Indian instruments tooting away.
As the music grows to inspire Roy to overcome his grief, we grow along with Roy and feel the inspiration of the songs as well.Despite its depressing subject matter, Jalsaghar is a great delight throughout its in entire runtime.
Overall this is a must-see film for anyone with a passion for film, music, or both although it is recommended you enter in good spirt..
There is quite a bit that I admired about this Indian film, however there are also a number of aspects that, whether it be for objective or subjective reasons, I did not particularly about it.
The high contrast prints are good for certain scenes, such as the fireworks, but the feel they generally provide is graininess, which makes the film rather uncomfortable to look at.
Some scenes, such as the main character's son riding an elephant or watching a painter, tend to disturb the flow of the plot.
The last thing that I would complain about is however the final few minutes of the film in which performance is treated as more important than the character's reactions.
It's a movie that works on a dramatic level with its main character and makes all of his emotions and feeling come across very realistic and almost sensible.Of course the movie is not as stylized and perfectly put together as a big Hollywood movie from around the same time period but nevertheless "Jalsaghar" still is one fine put together movie, by director Satyajit Ray. You can really tell he is a director that progressed over the years, as he gained more and more experience, recognition and money to work with.Really visually this movie is being great.
I really liked the black & white cinematography by Subrata Mitra, who started out his movie career along with Satyajit Ray. It's a movie with an heavy Indian atmosphere over it, so the lovers of its culture will definitely be able to appreciate this movie, all the more.Simply one fine, effective little drama.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
This 1958 story is remarkably subtle, about the advancing age and declining wealth of a higher caste Indian man, a Zamindar (landlord), whose income from his inherited lands is dropping from the previous levels of his wealthy ancestors because increasing river floods have lessened his rentable property and income.
As he ages we see his memory decline, e.g., asking one of his two remaining servants, "What month is this?" before he presents one last concert for invited guests (and to belittle his rival, his lower caste neighbor, an included guest) before he then embarks on an activity which leads to his death.
Great examples of Indian music (but the closed captions on the DVD we saw had white type/lettering which sometimes was not very legible against its background).
Depicts the end days of a decadent zamindar (landlord) in Bengal, and his efforts to uphold his family prestige even when faced with economic adversity.After the box office failure of "Aparajito", Ray desperately needed a hit film and decided to make a film based on both a popular piece of literature and a film that would incorporate Indian music.
It was the first film to extensively incorporate classical Indian music and dancing.For the life of me, I haven't found an Indian film -- classic or contemporary -- that I really liked.
Music and passion without those to share it with is without value, dried leaves rustling along the ground and pettiness to win burns them...It's Indian, but I wouldn't call it Bollywood, it's more like Ingmar Bergman in its depth.
The story is about a wealthy man whose life is music and putting on parties for friends, but he doesn't really enjoy the music he just does it to one up his neighbors who he feels in competition with...
his wife and son go out in a storm and die not to return, and he becomes a recluse in his castle, and at the end of his life he puts on one more final concert.
The film is amazing as a cautionary tale, but I felt it could have shown some form of redemption in the end, rather than racing out to regain something, out of fear for his own mortality, more so a sense of humility and love for his family he lost, neglected all that time...
For me, I was touched by most of this film, because I feel that the power of music is both a symbol and a seducer; this is something I've 'known' in my own life.
If you are not from India and find the cast system an insult to humanity and if you can tell music from noise or hypnotic sounds, then you will probably, as I, have a more sensible view on this film and its virtues than an inbred Indian of the Brahman cast (the most privileged cast).
To attack the music in this film and call it noise is, I admit, to put your chin out.
It is a music however, that easily puts you in a hypnotic state in which some interesting experiences are possible as, for instance, a deeper understanding of Indian way of life.
Allowing lyrics to the music, the number of hours is, of course, much larger.Back to the film.
An art film of exceptional beauty that delivers a sense of the aging of a character that is superior even to, I think, that of Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.
That the aging that we see here occurs over the course of only four years and opposed to decades makes this film, I think, all the more subtle and remarkable.
I do not hesitate when I say that it is perfect, and contains the single greatest musical number ever set to film.
It amazes me when I pop in a picture made 50 years ago and learn so much from it, and am moved and shocked and carried by its honest emotions in a way that makes the Music Room feel so modern.
Satyajit Ray made "The Music Room" in 1958, a few years after "Pather Panchali" and before completing the rest of the Apu Trilogy and like them, it too is a masterpiece.
It's about the sin of pride and how it destroys the supercilious old landlord Biswambhar Roy, (a magnificent performance from Chhabi Biswas), whose idea of 'keeping up with the Jones'' is to squander all he has on musical evenings that will outdo those of his nearest neighbour.
Although you might say it destroys him Biswambhar is also redeemed by opening up his music room for one last great concert.This is also one of the cinema's greatest studies of obsession and of loneliness.
If "Pather Panchali" were not enough this confirmed Ray's stature as one of world cinema's greatest directors and it is a film that remains as powerful today as it did when it first appeared.
The cinematography, shadow & light play alongside the film's music combine to perfectly highlight the moments of elation and ultimate downfall of its lead character.
Chhabi Biswas is perfectly cast as the ageing zamindar oblivious to his world crumbling down around him.
The cleaned up audio does wonders for the incredible music & classical dance scenes, which feature a guest appearance from Ustad Waheed Khan.
If you have any interest in real cinema and even if you're not a Ray fan, this is one of the greatest examples of what a totally flawless film looks like..
The old Zamindar tries really really hard to hold on to the lost glory of his family through his music room (Jalsaghar) when there's no hope.
And finally in an act of madness loses his very life.I think, through this movie Ray has brought out something very essential to being a human being: Pride (mixed with false hope) and its power to drive a person insane.One of Ray's masterpieces: will definitely compel you to watch more of Ray's films..
Sadly, the economy of the Bush years more resembles the tragic hero of Satyajit Ray's "The Music Room," -- whose title and nobility make social requirements for him to provide entertainments, and whose patrimony make financial requirements, which he has no wherewithal to maintain: eventually he bankrupts himself to the very moneylenders he entertains at his home, to maintain an image only he felt obligated to maintain.
There are many places where this film could have ended, and it would have been a better film, such as (a) after the storm, (b) with the house in ruins, even (c) after the triumphant final performance.
The Music Room (Jalsaghar).
I found this Indian Bengali film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I knew nothing about prior to reading about it, but I was hoping for something worthwhile, directed by Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali, Aparajito, The World of Apu).
Basically Bishwambar Roy (Chhabi Biswas) is a wealthy landowner, or zamindar, who lives in a palace, the decadent manner of his ancestors, with his wife and son and his many servants.
His biggest passion, which his wife thinks of as an addiction, is music, and he spends a great deal of his fortune and time throwing lavish parties for the locals to attend concerts to be held in his magnificent music room.
Roy's wife Mahamaya (Padma Devi) and son Khoka (Pinaki Sen Gupta) are killed in a storm, he becomes reclusive, and closes his music room.
To be completely honest, I did not follow the full story as it was playing out, concentrating on the subtitles made this difficult I suppose, but I did enjoy the great music and dance routines that went on in the music room, all in all it a reasonable drama.