As a movie buff, one of the best pieces of news I’ve heard recently is that Satyajit Ray’s 1958 film Jalsaghar (The Music Room) has received the Criterion Collection treatment. For any poor soul who doesn’t know what that means, here goes: high-definition print restoration, carefully assembled special features, and artistic packaging that shows discernment as well as respect for films and film history.
I’ve been a huge Criterion fan ever since I first chanced on their DVDs, and they’ve played a big part in helping me rediscover favourite old movies – as well as revisit other films that I wasn't too enthused by when I first saw them years ago (on poor videocassette prints, most likely). The time and effort they spend always shows in the final product, and their DVDs demonstrate that packaging (which, as I define it, includes the print transfer, the look of the menu and cover artwork, and the supplements) can be nearly as important as the quality of the movie.
At the very least, it can be a serious appetite-whetter. The Criterion designers sometimes use a striking image from the film itself – perhaps meaningfully juxtaposed with another still, or shown at an unfamiliar angle that deepens its effect – but they also frequently use original artwork, and that’s what they have done here. On the Jalsaghar cover, a minimalist white-on-grey design is used to evoke the passing of a way of life; the film is about a zamindar fallen on bad times. The DVD won’t be available for another month or two, but the official website (http://www.criterion.com/films/27657-the-music-room) reveals that the special features include the documentary on Ray made by Shyam Benegal in 1984, and a booklet with an essay by renowned critic Philip Kemp.
Interestingly, this is the first Satyajit Ray film to get the Criterion treatment. I don’t know what factors lay behind the choice (possibly there were copyright issues or lack of accessibility to other original prints?) but the company often makes unconventional decisions anyway. One can imagine their consulting team passing by the acknowledged Ray classics like the Apu trilogy and Charulata, and opting instead for this flawed but very intriguing film which shows us an early stage in an artist’s development.
Ray was even younger in the early 1950s when he got the opportunity to briefly work with Jean Renoir during the shooting of The River. This gorgeously photographed film, about an English girl coming of age in Bengal, has been on the Criterion catalogue for years, and one of the disc’s highlights is a video introduction by Martin Scorsese, who was instrumental in the restoration. Given the types of films Scorsese himself makes, it’s bemusing – but also pleasing – to see his adoration for a genteel, old-world movie like The River. He first saw it at age nine, he says in the introduction, and it was one of his formative experiences as a child – “my first experience of a very different culture... my family wasn't well-educated, I didn't know much about other places, but despite my own very different background, I identified with the Indian people on the screen, I felt for them”.
There aren’t many other Criterion movies with an India connection, but one exception is Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, which got the full-blown treatment with cast and crew interviews, a collection of Nair’s short documentaries, and an excellent essay by Pico Iyer. I wonder if it’s too much to hope that a mainstream Hindi-movie classic will make it to that prized catalogue anytime soon!
Jai Arjun Singh is a Delhi-based writer
