Screening of Satyajit Ray’s The Music Room – November 11

Rita Banerjee will introduce and lead the discussion for Satyajit Ray’s 1958 film, The Music Room (জলসাঘর), on November 11, 2013 from 6-8:30 pm for the Institute for Indology and Tibetology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.  The screening will take place in Seminar Room 427 (Ludwigstr. 31, Munich).  The screening is part of the course Bengali 1: Introduction to the Bengali Language & Art House Film at LMU.  Anyone interested in Bengali Cinema or South Asian Art House Film is welcomed to join the screening.  With The Music Room (Jalsaghar), Satyajit Ray brilliantly evokes the crumbling opulence of the world of a fallen aristocrat (the beloved actor Chhabi Biswas) desperately clinging to a fading way of life. His greatest joy is the music room in which he has hosted lavish concerts over the years—now a shadow of its former vivid self. An incandescent depiction of the clash between tradition and modernity, and a showcase for some of India’s most popular musicians of the day, The Music Room is a defining work by the great Bengali filmmaker. [From The Criterion Collection]