Jalsaghar

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Jalsaghar (The Music Room)
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Written by Satyajit Ray, from a story by Tarashankar Bandopadhyay
Starring Chhabi Biswas,
Padma Devi,
Pinaki Sengupta,
Gangapada Basu,
Kali Sarkar,
Ustad Bismillah Khan
Music by Vilayat Khan
Distributed by Edward Harrison
Release date(s) 1958
Running time 100 min
Language Bengali
IMDb profile

Jalsaghar (Bengali: জলসাঘর) was released in 1958, sometimes released in the English-speaking world as Jalsaghar: The Music Room, is the fourth feature film directed by Satyajit Ray. Based on a novel of the same name by Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, the film is a detailed dramatic study of the last days of a zamindar - a semi-feudal landlord in Bengal. Told with a detail and sense of empathy that typify Ray's films, Jalsaghar drew high praise internationally (e.g. Bosley Crowther in The New York Times, Derek Malcolm in The Guardian), and is discussed in the second volume of Roger Ebert's Great Movies as a landmark film in global cinema.

The film features much excellent footage of Hindustani classical vocal and instrumental music, as well as classical dance. The musical score is by Vilayat Khan (although the credits for the Sony Pictures Classics video release mistakenly list Ravi Shankar as composer) and several major performers, including Begum Akhtar (first singer; sometimes credited as Akhtari Bai), Roshan Kumari (kathak dancer), Ustad Bismillah Khan and Company, Waheed Khan (surbahar player), and Salamat Ali Khan (second, khyal singer; sometimes credited as Salamat Khan) also appear in the film.

[edit] Sources

  • Roger Ebert: The Great Movies II, 2005, Broadway Books.
  • Andrew Robinson: Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye, 2nd Ed., 2004, I.B. Tauris Books.

[edit] External links

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Films directed by Satyajit Ray
Pather Panchali (1955) • Aparajito (1957) • Parash Pathar (1958) • Jalsaghar (1958) • The World of Apu (1959) • Devi (1960) • Teen Kanya (1961) • Rabindranath Tagore (1961) • Kanchenjungha (1962) • Abhijan (1962) • Mahanagar (1963) • Charulata (1964) • Two (1965) • Kapurush (1965) • Mahapurush (1966) • Nayak (1966) • Chiriyakhana (1967) • Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969) • Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) • Pratidwandi (1971) • Seemabaddha (1971) • Sikkim (1971) • The Inner Eye (1972) • Distant Thunder (1973) • Sonar Kella (1974) • Jana Aranya (1976) • Bala (1976) • The Chess Players (1977) • Joi Baba Felunath (1978) • Hirak Rajar Deshe (1980) • Pikoor Diary (1981) • Sadgati (1981) • Ghare Baire (1984) • Sukumar Ray (1987) • Ganashatru (1989) • Shakha Proshakha (1990) • The Stranger (1991)