The Music Room (Jalsaghar) is a 1958 film from India directed by Satyajit Ray.
The film takes place during the later years of The Raj, circa the late 1920s to early '30s. Biswambhar Roy (Chhabi Biswas) is a zamindar—a landholder, a member of the nobility roughly equivalent to an English earl. The Roy family lives in an enormous mansion, but their fortunes are in severe decline, something which Roy is either unable or unwilling to do anything about. He likes nothing better than to stage grand entertainments in his lavish music room, inviting musicians to play for his friends and neighbors, but by the time frame of the story he has to pawn his wife Mahamaya's (Padma Devi) jewelry to do so. Roy's state of genteel poverty is made even more irritating by the presence of a neighbor, one Mahim Ganguly (Gangapada Bose), a commoner who has built himself up into wealth even as Roy the patrician sinks into poverty.
Roy keeps spending to keep up appearances, staging concerts even as his financial situation continues to deteriorate. A terrible tragedy occurs which causes Roy to retreat from the world and shut himself up inside his increasingly shabby mansion, but the continuing impudence of Mahim the parvenu leads Roy to one last display of wealth.
Tropes:
- As You Know: Mahim says "the inauguration is Monday, Bengali New Year's Day." As if Roy doesn't know when New Year's is.
- Blood from the Mouth: How we know that Roy's fall from a horse at the end of the film is fatal.
- Blue Blood: Roy, a product of the hereditary Bengal aristocracy. Near the end of the movie he cites "Blood! The blood in my veins!" as the reason why he is still perceived as an aristocrat while Mahim is still a Nouveau Riche grasper.
- Bookends: The same shot of the swaying chandelier in the music room opens and closes the film.
- Cobweb of Disuse: When Ananta opens the music room again after four years, the chandelier is covered with cobwebs.
- Conspicuous Consumption: Roy spends money that he simply does not have in order to project the image of a rich person even as he falls into poverty.
- Despair Event Horizon: Roy finally seems to realize how dire his situation has become after the final concert, drunkenly toasting pictures of his ancestors and freaking out when the candles in the music room's chandelier start to extinguish. He then goes out on a reckless joyride on horseback, deliberately driving the horse to spook and lethally throw him.
- Flashback: After a brief intro, much of the first half of the film is given to two long flashbacks showing two concerts that Roy hosted in order to lord it over nouveau riche Mahim.
- Honor Before Reason: Roy needs to either sell off his land or figure out a way to make it pay, but instead he continues to host lavish parties, because he has to project the appearance of a rich man even as things grow more and more desperate.
- Idle Rich: Roy doesn't seem capable of doing anything to recover his finances or repair his situation. He's an Idle Rich aristocrat who remains idle even after he is no longer rich. Roy's wife complains that he is infecting their son with his own laziness.
- I'll Tell You When I've Had Enough!: A non-verbal example. Ananta, who is well aware of his master's heavy drinking even as he descends into poverty, fills an already plastered Roy's glass half-full of wine. Roy snags the bottle with the handle of his cane and forces Ananta to pour the rest.
- Impoverished Patrician: Roy goes from impoverished to stone cold broke over the course of the film. By the end of the movie most everything he owns has been sold off, he is left with only two servants, and the mansion itself is dirty and decrepit. He gives literally the last of his money to the dancer he hired for the show.
- Land Poor: Roy is so broke by the end that his steward has sold off the silverware, but he still has his house and his land, even though apparently no one is paying him rent.
- Ms. Red Ink: An unusual gender flip. Roy spends and spends, hocking his wife's jewelry to do so. His wife for her part is appalled at her husband's irresponsibility but seems to have long ago given up any hope of changing things.
- Nouveau Riche: Mahim, whose father was a moneylender, but who has prospered and become rich. Roy is irritated by the putt-putt noise of the generator that provides electricity to Mahim's house. Mahim holds Roy in thinly veiled contempt but attempts to imitate him, hosting concerts and lavish parties in hopes of cultivating a reputation for culture and refinement similar to Roy's. In one scene Mahim notes that the peasants gawk at Roy's elephant because Roy is Old Money, while they throw rocks at Mahim's nice new car.
- Old Money: Roy comes from a long line of zamindar aristocrats. Portraits of his ancestors decorate the walls.
- Old Retainer: Ananta, Roy's personal servant, who stays with him until the end, even as his master runs out of money. Also the unnamed estate manager, but while the estate manager has a more clear-eyed appreciation of Roy's desperate financial straits, Ananta glows with joy while cleaning the long-disused music room for one last concert.
- Time Skip: Four years pass between the death of Roy's wife and child, and the latter portion of the film with Roy a broken man.
- Title Drop: Many references to the music room that is Roy's pride and joy, and the only thing he cares about while his estate slides into ruin.
