The Music Room
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.
Special 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 new 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
New cover by Marian Bantjes
Special 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 new 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
New cover by Marian Bantjes
Cast
- Chhabi Biswas
- Biswambhar Roy
- Padma Devi
- Mahamaya, his wife
- Pinaki Sen Gupta
- Bireswar, his son
- Gangapada Bose
- Mahim Ganguli
- Tulsi Lahiri
- Taraprasanna, the steward
- Kali Sarkar
- Ananta, the servant
- Begum Akhtar
- Durgabai
- Salamat Ali Khan
- Ujir Khan
- Roshan Kumari
- Krishnabai
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 company
- Music performed offscreen by
- Daksinamohan Thakur, Asish Kumar, Robin Majumdar, Imrat Hussain Khan
- Production manager
- Anil Choudhury
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