KARACHI, June 22: The Karachi chapter of the All Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) departed from its customary offering of live music and dance performances and instead screened Satyajit Ray’s classic black-and-white movie Jalsaghar (The music room) on Friday night at T2F featuring vocal, instrumental and dance pieces by legends such as Begum Akhtar, Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ustad Bismillah Khan.

Jalsaghar, based on a short story by Bengali writer Tarasankar Banerjee, opens with a heavy-set man Biswambhar Roy reclining on an easy chair on the roof of his haveli. Dressed in an expensive gown, he is deep in thought. His servant brings a hookah to his master and the man quietly puffs away. His contemplation is disturbed when he hears sounds of shehnai (performed by Ustad Bismillah Khan) emerging from his neighbour’s house. His servant tells him that the Upanayan (coming-of-age ceremony) of his neighbour’s son is the cause of celebration. This bothers Roy giving viewers an inkling of bad blood between him and his neighbour Mahim Ganguly (Gangapada Bose) and his constant one-upmanship over Ganguly that leads to disastrous consequences particularly for Roy while Ganguly remains unaffected.

Through this rivalry Ray depicts the obstinacy and the egotism of the feudal class that refuses to change its ways. In fact, there is a prescient scene in Jalsaghar in which the long-suffering wife of Roy, a debt-stricken feudal, berates him for mortgaging her jewels to pay the performers in a music recital that he has just put together for his acolytes in his Jalsaghar located in his slowly crumbling haveli. “We have to spend money. My prestige depends on it,” he says.

By means of flashback we get to know the life story of Roy who is initially shown to host his only son’s Upanayan and celebrates it by hosting a grand music concert featuring a vocal performance by Begum Akhtar ‘Bhar bhar ayee ankhiyan moray piya bin’. He pays for the concert by mortgaging his wife’s jewellery.

In the meantime his neighbour Ganguly’s fortunes rise when he builds a “modern house” and he hosts a housewarming party inviting Roy who arrogantly declines saying that he has a music recital in his haveli that very evening. Roy sends for his wife and son, both of whom are away and spending some time at his wife’s village, but due to the stormy weather their boat capsizes and they drown. All this happens while a classical music performance in Jalsaghar is under way. The second concert features the vocals of Ustad Salamat Ali Khan from Pakistan.

Depressed Roy forgoes music for a long time. It is only when his rival neighbour invites him to the opening of his music room that Roy returns to his obsessive love for music by turning down Ganguly’s invitation and has his Jalsaghar cleaned and dusted for a final recital. Even though the Kathak dancer Krishnabai (Roshan Kumari) charges a hefty amount, Roy insists that she be invited. Thus we get to see a masterful Kathak performance by Kumari with fast-paced footwork and graceful spins.

Following the screening of Jalsaghar there was a panel discussion on the film by Asif Farrukhi, Zaheer Kidvai and Ayla Raza.

The movie was a celebration of the arts, Mr Farrukhi said, adding: “You can see about two to three arts in the movie. There are music, literature, visual art and film art.” He said Jalsaghar reminded him of the short story Kanras written by Ghulam Abbas that also centered on a man’s obsessive love for music. He also spoke about how Satyajit Ray came to make the movie and narrated an interesting story behind the haveli where Jalsaghar was shot.

Zaheer Kidvai explained the musical details of the movie. Ustad Vilyat Khan and his brother Imrat Khan were the music directors and it was Imrat who having exposure to foreign films and music added those elements to the film. “Abdul Waleed Khan plays the surbahar [a larger version of the sitar] in a short sequence in Jalsaghar,” he added.

APMC general secretary Ayla Raza discussed the change in appreciation of the performing arts. “The audience has not been trained in how to show their appreciation to the performers.” She recalled the words of Raza Kazim, a lawyer and patron of the arts, who once said that because the classical musicians were not appreciated in Pakistan, they went into different directions and thus enriched ghazal singing and film music.

To which Mr Kidvai interjected: “But we shouldn’t stop it [promoting classical music].” Ms Raza said: “That’s why we [APMC] exist.” And Mr Farrukhi uttered the final words of the discussion: “Classical music is a body of knowledge that should be preserved.”