The world-wide acclaim given to Satyajit Ray's Bengali trilogy has tended to overshadow his other films, none of which has received much of a showing in the West. In the case of The Philosopher's Stone, a mild comedy made as a commercial intermezzb, the loss is negligible; but Jalsaghar or The Music Room (made before Apu) was fobbed off with a minor prize at the 1959 Moscow Festival and then mysteriously disappeared. Fortunately, after two attempts, Jalsaghar was captured for last year's London Festival. Although it cannot be said to outclass the best parts of the trilogy, it proves to be an engrossing experiment in a deliberately minor key. (p. 35)

[This] is Ray's most romantic film, almost Gothic in its concentration on the crumbling spiritual and physical façade of its protagonist's existence. In it, Ray seems to be recording the loss of a certain kind of purity and...