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. His wealth however is dwindling, his lands are being eroded by the local rivers, and he pays for a concert, arranged for his son's coming of age, by selling some of the family jewels. His neighbour Ganguli (Gangapada Basu) invites him to a party at his house, but Roy decides to organise a party of his own, the same day, and it costs him the last of his jewels. 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. Many years later, he decides to hold one final concert, spending the last of his money, and again to spite and outdo Ganguli. It ends in tragedy when he rides his horse at speed on the beach, deliberately galloping towards a wrecked ship, the horse is panicked, and he falls to the floor, injuring himself, as he bleeds he dies. 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. Okay!
Review of Jalsaghar
