The Disciple
Director: Chaitanya Tamhane
Cast: Aditya Modak, Arun Dravid
There have been many films pegged on music and teacher-student relationships, and one which caught my eye and consideration in latest occasions was Rajiv Menon’s Sarvam Thaala Mayam in regards to the monumental necessity for Carnatic Sangeet to be extra inclusive, and not to be simply confined to the higher echelons of India’s social order. Menon wove into this narrative a compelling story of how a younger man from the decrease strata fights to be included on this unique membership, and desires to have as his guru an ideal vidhwan.
Chaitanya Tamhane’s The Disciple, which discovered a berth in 2020 Venice Competition — lengthy, lengthy after Mira Nair’s beautiful Monsoon Wedding clinched the Golden Lion for Best Picture in 2001 – additionally focuses on the “guru-shishya parampara”. The movie is full of haunting Hindustani classical music, pure and unadulterated by up to date fare, which may typically be a whole lot of noise and din.
Tamhane, who directed The Court (additionally a Venice entry) some years in the past, writes a narrative of how music, particularly classical, requires 100 per cent dedication, a thoughts freed from distractions. The message right here is daring and clear; there isn’t any place for questions, and Hindustani classical instructor, know within the film as Guruji (performed by Arun Dravid with solemn dedication and will to stay in digital penury), is a tough taskmaster. He doesn’t flinch when he chastises a scholar even throughout a public efficiency, and his favorite shishya/scholar is Sharad Nerulkar (Aditya Modak). He tries to stay by his grasp’s diktat, and doesn’t even stray in the direction of a younger woman, additionally Guruji’s scholar, who takes an curiosity in him. This regardless of his mom and grandmother berating him for not having a correct job or getting married. He is so drunk in Guruji’s worldly knowledge and music that an opportunity criticism one night by an acquaintance angers Sharad. He throws a glass of water on the critic!
The Disciple has an attention-grabbing theme all proper, but it surely didn’t grip me, didn’t interact me in a approach that fashionable cinema is able to. There are so many lengthy pictures that they fail to bridge the viewers and the characters. We get irritated as a result of we thirst to be shut to Sharad, and to see his feelings and his disappointments when he can not stay up expectations. And the ache of all of it. It is a lazy digicam that’s blissful staying afar and static, and typically the script wanders moderately aimlessly, as when there’s a competitors for budding singers or when Sharad (after he himself turns into a instructor) ticks off the mom of a scholar when she desires her son to carry out in public. “He is still learning to walk, and you want him to run”, he admonishes her.
The script actually wanted to be tighter. I may by no means perceive why we would have liked these lengthy motorcycle rides on lonely Mumbai roads by Sharad with Maai’s (a classical legend) voiceover (by the late Sumitra Bhave) talking about focus, dedication and the like. These rides appeared monotonous, and the time may have maybe been used to take us deeper into Sharad’s life. We find yourself realizing so little about him.
Rating: 2/5
(Gautaman Bhaskaran is film critic and writer of a biography of Adoor Gopalakrishnan)
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