“I think five or six [Satyajit Ray films] could claim to rank among the 100 best films of all time...One is Pather Panchali... Another is Charulata... But the film I would select above both is 1958’s Jalsaghar, or The Music Room, which proves beyond doubt that this writer, composer, illustrator and film-maker, who was sometimes accused of being more Western than Indian, was no such thing.”
Ageing Bengali landowner, Huzur Biswambhar Roy (Chhabi Biswas), invites an assortment of friends and business associates-cum-rivals to a final concert in his private music room. Living on borrowed time and far beyond his means, Huzar clings to an existence that is fast fading away. The Music Room beautifully evokes the crumbling opulence of the world of a fallen aristocrat and is an incandescent depiction of the clash between tradition and modernity. And the actual music's pretty great too.
