Vilayat Khan

North India: the Music Room (Jalsaghar) Vilayat Khan

The music of Satyajit Ray's cinematic masterpiece (Jalsaghar, 1958), by Ustad Vilayat Khan (sitar) with the participation of Imrat Khan (sitar, surbahar), Bismillah Khan (shehnai), Akhtari Bai [aka Begum Akhtar] -thumri singing, Salamat Ali Khan -khyal singing etc. 'After the box office failure of my second film Aparajito ("The Unvanquished"), I was a little unsure as to what kind of film I should make next. After some deliberation, I decided on a film featuring singing and dancing -a formula which usually worked with the Indian audience. I chose a popular short story -Jalsaghar- about the last days of a music loving feudal baron. I was fortunate to be able to use some of the leading singers and instrumentalists for the film. As composer, I chose the great sitar virtuoso Vilayat Khan who was most ably assisted by his younger brother Imrat Khan, also a sitar virtuoso. The two of them provided superb solos and duets for the background music for which -with the exception of violins- only Indian instruments were used. All the background score is raga-based.' (Satyajit Ray)