Stars: Chhabi Biswas, Gangapada Bose, Kali Sarkar, Padma Devi | Written and Directed by Satyajit Ray
After the commercial failure of the second part of his Apu Trilogy, Bengali auteur Satyajit Ray opted for more commercially viable material for his next project. He turned to writer Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, and a short story about a landlord clinging to his last motes of power as his empire crumbles around him. The result was 1958’s Jalsaghar, released internationally as The Music Room.
The landlord (or zamindar) in question is Lord Roy, played by Chhabi Biswas with a gravitas that matches his contemporary, Laurence Olivier. The film opens halfway through the narrative, with Roy as a bent old man, and the last of his servants, Ananta (Kali Sarkar), still at his side. We jump back four years to show what brought Roy to near-ruin, before the second half of the movie shows us how he...
After the commercial failure of the second part of his Apu Trilogy, Bengali auteur Satyajit Ray opted for more commercially viable material for his next project. He turned to writer Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, and a short story about a landlord clinging to his last motes of power as his empire crumbles around him. The result was 1958’s Jalsaghar, released internationally as The Music Room.
The landlord (or zamindar) in question is Lord Roy, played by Chhabi Biswas with a gravitas that matches his contemporary, Laurence Olivier. The film opens halfway through the narrative, with Roy as a bent old man, and the last of his servants, Ananta (Kali Sarkar), still at his side. We jump back four years to show what brought Roy to near-ruin, before the second half of the movie shows us how he...
- 8/3/2017
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Chicago – In between the second and third installments of his infamous “Apu Trilogy,” Bengali master of cinema Satyajit Ray made two films that were striking departures from his signature portrait of poverty-stricken youth. The first was 1958’s failed comedy “The Philosopher’s Stone” (sorry, Potterheads, no relation) and the second was 1959’s masterpiece, “The Music Room.”
This landmark classic is brought to electrifying life by Criterion’s magnificent digital restoration. The renewed picture quality allows Ray’s elegant visual poetry to be savored like never before. Without changing locations or resorting to heavy-handed symbolism, Ray is able to explore the decline of feudalism by depicting the life of a once-wealthy aristocrat whose bloodline is literally washed away by the ever-encroaching waters of the Ganges.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
Unlike Indian filmmakers of the day, Ray sought to integrate action and music into his narrative rather than feature them as separate entities.
This landmark classic is brought to electrifying life by Criterion’s magnificent digital restoration. The renewed picture quality allows Ray’s elegant visual poetry to be savored like never before. Without changing locations or resorting to heavy-handed symbolism, Ray is able to explore the decline of feudalism by depicting the life of a once-wealthy aristocrat whose bloodline is literally washed away by the ever-encroaching waters of the Ganges.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
Unlike Indian filmmakers of the day, Ray sought to integrate action and music into his narrative rather than feature them as separate entities.
- 7/27/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Reviewer: Philip Tatler IV
Rating (out of five): * * **
Over the opening credits of Satyajit Ray’s 1958 The Music Room (Jalsaghar), a chandelier drifts out of the darkness, slowly swaying into view like some luminescent deep sea creature. This chandelier, one of several that hang in the titular room, will come to symbolize the flickering (pre-electric) light of a way of life that is quickly disappearing.
The Music Room is a fin de siècle story along the lines of The Leopard or The Magnificent Ambersons, detailing the last member of a feudal dynasty’s slide into obscurity. When we first see Lord Roy (Bengali matinee idol Chhabi Biswas), he is alone on the roof of his decaying palace, lost in thought. A sparse exchange with his servant (Kali Sarkar) reveals that Lord Roy has no idea what month or season it is.<...
Rating (out of five): * * **
Over the opening credits of Satyajit Ray’s 1958 The Music Room (Jalsaghar), a chandelier drifts out of the darkness, slowly swaying into view like some luminescent deep sea creature. This chandelier, one of several that hang in the titular room, will come to symbolize the flickering (pre-electric) light of a way of life that is quickly disappearing.
The Music Room is a fin de siècle story along the lines of The Leopard or The Magnificent Ambersons, detailing the last member of a feudal dynasty’s slide into obscurity. When we first see Lord Roy (Bengali matinee idol Chhabi Biswas), he is alone on the roof of his decaying palace, lost in thought. A sparse exchange with his servant (Kali Sarkar) reveals that Lord Roy has no idea what month or season it is.<...
- 7/19/2011
- by weezy
- GreenCine
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