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 attended. The Indian delegation had done little to promote it, arranging only a single midnight screening Read more »
- India
- 1958
- 99 minutes
- Black and White
- 1.33:1
- Bengali
- Spine #573
SYNOPSIS: 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 & CreditsOpen
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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Press Notes
Press Notes: Best of 2011
January 13, 2012
It’s the time of year when the list makers do their heavy lifting, looking back over the preceding twelve months and deciding what was best and brightest. We’re happy to report that some of our Read more »
Press Notes: The Music Room
July 27, 2011
The brilliant Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray has joined the Criterion Collection with his evocative and deeply moving 1958 drama The Music Room. It’s a film that viewers may not know as well Read more »
