The Music Room

The Music Room is a 1958 Indian film directed by Satyajit Ray. So far, I've loved every film I've seen by this director. This one is a beautiful drama showing the end of an era.

trailer:

a short clip of the dancer:

I watched the movie at Hulu (with commercials), but it's behind their paywall now.

Slant Magazine says,

The Music Room juxtaposes [the main character's] tormented experience with the changing tides of the world around him. His hatred of Ganguli, a brash and vulgar personification of new money and modernization, is a defense mechanism based on centuries of class judgment.

Paste Magazine calls it "a full-on Shakespearean tragedy that manages to be both critical of and sympathetic to its main character." The Guardian closes with this: "Like all great film-makers, Ray belonged to the world as much as to his own nation. But The Music Room leaves no doubt where his heart lay. It was with his own people, warts and all." Senses of Cinema calls it "one of Ray’s finest achievements."

DVD Talk says it's "Highly Recommended". Roger Ebert considers it a "Great Movie" inviting comparison with King Lear, and says it "has one of the most evocative opening scenes ever filmed" and calls it "his most evocative film". Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 100%.