The Music Room

Original title: Jalsaghar

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

6.9K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer1:42

1 Video

25 Photos

Drama Music

Depicts the end days of a decadent zamindar (landlord) in Bengal, and his efforts to uphold his family prestige even when faced with economic adversity.Depicts the end days of a decadent zamindar (landlord) in Bengal, and his efforts to uphold his family prestige even when faced with economic adversity.Depicts the end days of a decadent zamindar (landlord) in Bengal, and his efforts to uphold his family prestige even when faced with economic adversity.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

6.9K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins & 2 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 1:42

The Music Room

Photos25

+ 18

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list.

Goofs
After talking to his wife about the cost of the music party, a close-up shows the landlord falling asleep with his hand bent down at the wrist. After the cut to medium, his hand lies straight up in his neck.

Quotes
Huzur Biswambhar Roy: [laughing drunkenly, deriding the moneylender's son, Ganguly] He failed. He failed!
Huzur Biswambhar Roy: [now talking to his servant Ananta, who is refilling his glass with liquor] He couldn't do it. He couldn't do it! That moneylender's son! He wanted to be king of the mountain. What arrogance, huh? What arrogance! A dwarf reaching for the moon! He couldn't do it. You know why he failed?
Huzur Biswambhar Roy: [speaking directly to Ananta] Blood! The blood in my veins! You know whose blood flows in my veins? You want to see? Come...
Huzur Biswambhar Roy: [proceeding to point out portraits on the wall of his elders] My father... my grandfather... my great grandfather... my great-great grandfather.

Connections
Featured in Celluloid Man (2012)

User reviews42

Review

Featured review

10/10

The Greatest Film You Never Heard Of

At the time I post this, only 123 people have cast a vote of any kind for The Music Room. What a shame.

Satyajit Ray is one of the greatest directors of all-time and The Music Room is his masterpiece. Correction: The Music Room is a masterpiece of world cinema.

How to describe this movie? In Hollywood lingo, you could call it Citizen Kane meets Black Narcissus with a big dose of King Lear. Of course, if you called it that, they'd shelve the project and spend the money on the sequel to XXX.

Pity poor Biswambhar Roy, a king in a lonely castle. He's lost not only his family but his entire way of life. He is a mistake. A forgotten man waiting in his empty shell of a world.

He spends the last remnants of his once vast fortune on a final, lavish musical performance in his crumbling home, a last-ditch attempt to connect to the pride and joy he once felt in his life.

Not that he is innocent. He is proud and oblivious, spoiled and selfish. But surely not a bad man. Merely a displaced man. So we can cheer as he is granted one last moment of happiness and weep for him as he meets his inevitable end.

How is that Satyajit Ray remains unknown even to many die-hard cineastes in the States? I hope one of the companies will come along soon and release some of his work on DVD.