The music room

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Movie
German title The music room
Original title জলসাঘর
(Jalsaghar)
Country of production India
original language Bengali
Publishing year 1958
length 94 minutes
Rod
Director Satyajit Ray
script Satyajit Ray
production Satyajit Ray
music Vilayat Khan
camera Subrata Mitra
cut Dulal Dutta
occupation

The Music Room ( Bengali : জলসাঘর , Jalsāghar ) is an Indian feature film by Satyajit Ray from 1958.

action

The impoverished aristocratic landowner ( Zamindar ) and music lover Huzur Biswambhar Roy lives alone and withdrawn with his servant Ananta and his land manager in his slowly decaying palace.

Sitting on the roof and pondering, he listens to music from the neighboring property of the socially ascended middle-class Mahim Ganguli on the occasion of his son's initiation ceremony. This awakens Roy memories of this very celebration with his own son Khoka.

FLASHBACK. 4 to 5 years earlier Biswambhar Roy was already in financial difficulties. His land, which he rented for his income, was swept away by the Bengali rivers over time, and the bank no longer grants him loans. Then he gets a visit from his neighbor's son Mahim Ganguli and grants him the desired land lease. He finances his son's opulent initiation party, including the music evening (reserved for adult men) in the palace's large music room , by pledging his wife Mahamaya's jewels. She reproaches him for his obsession with costly music evenings. The next day reveals Roy's usual day-to-day activities - model sitting for a new painting, making music with his son Khoka.

His wife and son are called to his sick father-in-law in a distant town and leave alone, as Roy "has to take care of his land". In the meantime, Ganguli, who had made money, has had a modern house built and invites Roy to the inauguration ceremony on Bengali New Years Day (note: there is a Bengali calendar that follows the phases of the moon). Roy declines on the grounds that he has already planned his own celebration for this day, to which he is inviting Ganguli. He entrusts his manager with the preparations and the return of his family. During the music evening, the boat with his wife and son capsized in a thunderstorm; both are dead. Roy then retires from public life. END OF FLASHBACK.

Still on the roof of the palace, Roy decides to give up his seclusion. Disgusted, he hears western brass music from the Ganguli estate. In the traditional style he sends his servant after him on a decorated elephant; Instead, Ganguli drives up in his car. Roy declines an invitation from Ganguli to an evening of music with the Kathak dancer Krishnabai. He is clearly of the opinion that Ganguli have no idea about music and traditional Bengali culture. But when he hears the music from afar, he decides to hold one last music evening with the same dancer in his music room to demonstrate to Ganguli that he may be wealthy, but only imitates culture, but does not know how to live. When Ganguli wants to toss money to the dancer at the end of the dance and music performance, Roy holds him back: "... the right of the first gift belongs to the host ...".

When morning comes, Roy stumbles through the music room, drunk with alcohol and delighted with his success. His money is completely gone. He decides to kill himself and rides his white horse to death.

background

The film is set in the early 20th century and shows the decline of the old and the rise of the new aristocracy in India. While Roy is emphatically proud of "the blood in his veins", Ganguli emphasizes that he has earned money through his own work. The film is also an example of the confrontation of western influences with the (here specifically Bengali) traditions of India. It is based on the stories Raibari and Jalsaghar by Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay .

Satyajit Ray filmed The Music Room on the property of a zamindar (landowner) near Nimtita, near the Padma River on what is now the Indian-Bangladeshi border. The film is rich in symbolic images: thunderstorms that heralds death; an insect trapped in a jar; the decaying palace and the boat lying up on land, symbolizing the end of the patriarch's life. The music room was designed in the studio by production designer Bansi Chandragupta . The Thumri pieces of classical North Indian music are performed by Begum Akhtar - India's greatest ghazal singer of the 20th century, the Shehnai virtuoso Bismillah Khan and the singer Waheed Khan . Roshan Kumari dances the Kathak .

Reviews

“A melancholy swan song to the feudal glory of the Indian aristocracy; at the same time a document of the clash of two cultures: the ancient Indian and the European. The central venue is the music room, in which three artfully and stylishly celebrated musical evenings mark the chapters of the film. "

- Lexicon of international film

Award

swell

  1. ^ Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Paul Willemen: Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema , p. 354. Oxford University Press, New Delhi
  2. ↑ The music room. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 

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