192 - The Music Room, 1958, India. Dir. Satyaji Ray.
Jalsaghar.
The chandelier swings like a ticking clock. The pendulum of time.
The time has passed for the landlords. The zamindar.
Huzur is a landlord. He lives in a palace. He has two servants. He has a great music room.
He is going broke.
He has no income.
He is losing money by the month.
He has to ask what month it is.
He sits on his deck in a daze, staring into space. Smoking his hookah. Which his loyal servant has brought him. And who tells him what month it is.
His neighbor Mahim is from a lower class. A low caste. Common. Vulgar. A money-lender. A shylock.
Mahim makes money.
Huzur hears Mahim's music in the distance. He looks down from the terrace into the courtyard below. He calls out to his servant.
Call the steward.
Ananta, the one servant, wakes up Prassana Babu, the other servant, the steward.
Lord Roy is calling you.
Babu goes up.
Why is music coming from Mahim's place?
For his son's initiation ceremony.
Was I invited? Yes. Did he come in person? No. He sent an invitation. Will you be going? Do I go anywhere?
Huzur's days of glory have passed with the ticking of time.
Mahim's days of glory are now.
Huzur sits in memory.
And we go into flashback when he was a younger man. In an earlier time. When it was his time.
He hosts parties. Grand parties. Even when they cost more than he can afford.
What do you do when you want to host a party that costs more than you can afford?
Go into debt.
Hock the family jewels.
The young Mahim comes to call. To lend him a loan. Huzur sets the terms. Huzur treats Mahim like a servant. The son of a moneylender. A commoner. Even though Huzur is borrowing money from Mahim. Even though Huzur is making himself Mahim's servant.
The borrower is servant to the lender.
Huzur's wife chides him for his extravagance. How foolish to spend money you do not have to hosts such lavish parties.
Well, at least we had a good time!
He is proud.
Throughout the film we go back and forth in time. Back to his time. Forth to Mahim's time. And we enjoy music along the way. In those parties Huzur hosts in his Music Room.
But now, in this time, all is lost. He has a horse. He has an elephant. Leftover from his glory days.
They are able to feed them but not much else. Even the animals are sad.
In the end he decides to host one last party. Paid for by the last of his jewels.
He is alone now. No wife or son. This will be his return to glory.
The one servant smiles. He has something to do. Clean the mirrors. Stretch out the carpets. Wipe the dust from the chandeliers.
The other servant warns him. This is impossible.
They have the party.
Mahim comes. Mahim, who has been outwardly good to Huzur throughout. Always polite. Always deferential. Open and friendly. Respecting Huzur's status. Acting like a good neighbor.
Huzur at the party tries to pull rank. Tries to put Mahim in his place.
Afterwards, Huzur stands in his empty Music Room. Broke. Alone.
He gloats. He declares his party to have been a success. He decides that he has beaten Mahim in the end.
He has something Mahim will never have.
Blood.
He goes to the great portrait of his father hanging on the wall.
His father's blood.
Watching as each gaslight goes out.
He is out of gas.
He will ride his horse one last time.
And we will see his blood.
The end of a great man.
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