The Music Room: Distant Music
By July 19, 2011
In May 1956, an Indian film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. It wasn’t well . . . Read more »
Film Info
- India
- 1958
- 99 minutes
- Black and White
- 1.33:1
- Bengali
- Spine #573
With The Music Room (Jalsaghar), Satyajit Ray brilliantly evokes the crumbling opulence of the world of a fallen aristocrat (the beloved actor Chhabi Biswas) desperately clinging to a fading way of life. His greatest joy is the music room in which he has hosted lavish concerts over the years—now a shadow of its former vivid self. An incandescent depiction of the clash between tradition and modernity, and a showcase for some of India’s most popular musicians of the day, The Music Room is a defining work by the great Bengali filmmaker.
Cast
| Biswambhar Roy | Chhabi Biswas |
| Mahamaya, his wife | Padma Devi |
| Bireswar, his son | Pinaki Sen Gupta |
| Mahim Ganguli | Gangapada Bose |
| Taraprasanna, the steward | Tulsi Lahiri |
| Ananta, the servant | Kali Sarkar |
| Durgabai | Begum Akhtar |
| Ujir Khan | Salamat Ali Khan |
| Krishnabai | Roshan Kumari |
Credits
| Director | Satyajit Ray |
| Screenplay | Satyajit Ray |
| Producer | Satyajit Ray |
| Based on the short story Jalsaghar by | Tarasankar Banerjee |
| Cinematography | Subrata Mitra |
| Editing | Dulal Dutta |
| Art director | Bansi Chandragupta |
| Sound | Durgadas Mitra |
| Music director | Ulstad Vilayat Khan |
| Music and dance performed onscreen by | Begum Akhtar, Roshan Kumari, Waheed Khan, Bismillah Khan and and company |
| Music performed offscreen by | Daksinamohan Thakur, Asish Kumar, Robin Majumdar and Imrat Hussain Khan |
| Production manager | Anil Choudhury |
Disc Features
- New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Satyajit Ray (1984), a feature documentary by Shyam Benegal that chronicles Ray’s career through interviews with the filmmaker, family photographs, and extensive clips from his films
- New interviews with Satyajit Ray biographer Andrew Robinson and filmmaker Mira Nair
- Excerpt from a 1981 French roundtable discussion with Ray, film critic Michel Ciment, and director Claude Sautet
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp, a 1963 essay by Ray on the film’s location, and a 1986 interview with the director about the film’s music
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Video
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“Watched this in a restored 35mm print. It was a profound experience - I fell in love immediately.”
