Jalsaghar
1958 film by Satyajit Ray
Jalsaghar (Bengali: জলসাঘর Jalsāghar, lit. 'The Music Room') is a 1958 Indian Bengali drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray, based on a popular short story by Bengali writer Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, and starring Chhabi Biswas. The fourth of Ray's feature films, it was filmed at Nimtita Raajbari in Nimtita, Murshidabad district.
Despite an initially poor critical reception in India, the film went on to win the Presidential Award for Best Film in New Delhi, and it played a significant role in establishing Ray's international reputation as a director. It has since gained near-universal critical acclaim, and has come to be regarded by the cinema community as one of the greatest films of all time.
Plot
In the early twentieth century, Biswambhar Roy is a Bengali zamindar (landlord) in decline who lives in a palace that is empty except for a servant and his steward. The music from the coming of age ceremony for the son of Biswambhar's nouveau-riche businessman neighbor, Mahim Ganguly, makes Biswambhar think back to when his only son, Khoka, went through the same ceremony. As he preferred to arrange lavish public concerts in his music room, instead of tending to his flood-damaged lands and keeping up with the changing times, Biswambhar's coffers were empty, so, to keep up appearances, he had to sell some of his (and his wife Mahamaya's) jewels to pay for the party, which included a performance by a thumri singer.
While Mahamaya and Khoka, who wanted to be just like his father, were away visiting Mahamaya's sick father, Mahim invited Biswambhar to a New Year's celebration at his new house, which has an electric generator. Not wanting to be outdone by a commoner, Biswambhar said he already had a celebration planned for that day at his palace. He sent word for Mahamaya and Khoka to return, sold some more jewels, and hastily found an available khyal singer.
The public source identifies “Jalsaghar” as 1958 film by Satyajit Ray. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Jalsaghar, film and Satyajit.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jalsaghar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.