Oddly billed as Bombay Talkies, given that Satyajit Ray is synonymous with Calcutta, this was an act of conversational homage between a band of very fine musicians and some of their favourite moving pictures.

In Ray’s seminal film, Devi, a young woman’s happy life is ruined when some old chap announces that she is an incarnation of the goddess Kali and has special powers, though the plot was less important than the gentle interplay between music and film.

Snippets of the Bengali dialogue were as much part of the semi-improvised score as Singh’s fingers bubbling away on the tabla, or the beguiling strains of Roopa Panesar’s sitar searching out hidden corners of emotion.

But while observing someone else’s devotion might be intriguing and exotic, it can fail to make the emotional connection that might persuade you to keep the faith yourself. Devi is masterful but slow, and the music seemed constrained by its own reverent subtlety.

A re-cutting of the film in the second half meant a welcome change in register, if a disappointment not to see the advertised Raja Harischandra.