Alternate Best Actor 1958: Chhabi Biswas in Jalsaghar

Chhabi Biswas did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Biswambhar Roy in Jalsaghar.

Jalsaghar tells the story of an older Indian lord.

A pleasure of mine from this endeavor can be when I purposefully don't look too much into the synopsis of a particular film, which is often the case if it is from a director I already like and the film has general acclaim. So I went into this one blind, and was in for a few surprises in its tale of Roy's days as a lord. When we open the film I didn't know where the film was going to take the character or me in terms of this journey, as we begin with the man seemingly just being contemplative and a bit demanding of his ever stoic, though not emotionless, estate manager, who is always trying and failing to as politely as possible slightly urge his lord to do what needs to be done. Biswas though exudes a man of wealth and really just of wealth. A man whose whole existence is within his estate and the whims he finds himself in, and what he's most fixated on. There is no great concern, despite plenty to the contrary, in the man's mind and Biswas brings this pitch perfect aloofness of a man who settles on his interests and his interests only. And those interests are largely just the music in his music room, which he eagerly goes to listen to, and in that we do see the man come to life and there is a keen interest in the eyes of Biswas as he looks upon the performer. The first being a woman, who I thought the film might go in a different direction given his wife's reaction to her, but in this particular point Biswas speaks as a man just earnestly infatuated, however infatuated with the music he's hearing. 

When Roy is given news of maybe some trouble with his estate all that Roy hears is that he hopes to have more music and music to properly serenade his son as well, despite the concerns of his wife that his son is becoming just like him. Again what Biswas's performance portrays without question is a sense of entitlement where his reactions don't really even quantify what his wife and manager are saying beyond the most minor elements. He's in a world of indifference and one of just enjoying what he wishes to enjoy how he wishes to enjoy it. And I suppose an important factor in making it so you don't immediately hate him, as really troublesome as he is, Biswas does present a purity within that love for the music, even sharing it with his son with this strict appreciation of it together. However the man's ignorance only continues as his wife basically pleads with him to actually take a trip and break his routine of basically laying around between when he listens to music. Again though he ignores the pleas where Biswas has the smile on his face of the sense of a man who just is in love with what he is experiencing so to even think about disrupting it, even for the sake of his wife doesn't even graze his eyes even for a moment. Biswas presents a man who is truly accustomed to his very comfortable experience, and nothing can seemingly break him from this spirit, it would seem. 

That is until tragedy surprisingly strikes his family, and much of his fortune is lost in a typhoon. And I think as good as Biswas is setting up really the hubris of the man awaiting the fall, he is amazing in the visceral reaction of the horror of his realization in the moment. For all his ambivalence to the troubles of life Biswas brings a real sense of the loss in the scene so potently. He is maybe even more striking in the following scene as the man just seems now just lost in his grief, and the pain on Biswas's face is indeed heartbreaking. The man's reality seems like it should be shattered as his performance shows just how much the man has gone through, however this only causes Roy to become even more insulated in his life. Biswas delivers his orders as quickly as possible, as kind of insisting statements of someone needing everything to be as he makes it, as it must be. The conviction of it though no longer is a man just trying to enjoy life but rather a man basically trying to ignore his trauma by completely shutting out the world around him. Which he almost does, despite much requiring his attention particularly his loss in finances and nearly losing everything. The idea of music still brings Roy's attention around and Biswas is great because again it is with earnest pleasure, however now when the notion appears it is with this even tighter fixation in his eyes of a man not just wanting to escape, rather absolutely needing it to be. 

Biswas in the final act of the film is brilliant in presenting a man completely lost in his delusions. We first see when he looks upon his old music room and Biswas's expression is haunting as the idea of the escape seems ever more needed yet ever more of the respite of a man losing all grip to reality. When he does get his music again the joy is real, albeit briefly for as long as it lasts. As we follow it as the man proclaims his importance of being a lord and Biswas declares all these grand statements with a prideful lunacy. Biswas evokes the state of a man in nearly losing all senses and he admires the portraits of his forefathers and himself. The latter being the key of the scene as he looks upon the portrait of himself that is marred briefly by a spider and Biswas's physical work in the "attack" that doesn't even remove the spider is of a man caught in this strange dreamland no longer really interacting with the world. And we see the man as he speaks in the final scenes of the man attempting one final act of being his lording self, and Biswas's performance brings this sense of broken jubilation. The man's mania is unquestioned as he goes headlong into his pursuit, and there is in his eyes the sense of a man truly lost within his obsessions that he let rule and control his life to a tired end. This is a great performance by Chhabi Biswas that depicts an extremely idiosyncratic personal downfall, yet never does it feel detached even in its most outlandish moments. Creating a powerful portrait of quite simply the dangers of losing perspective.