CHAITANYA TAMHANE’S WORK is gaining momentum. His directorial debut, Court (2015), a meditation on the banal evil of India’s judicial system, was praised for challenging the ideological conventions of the legal drama through static shots and long takes. No fast cut, close-up-heavy procedural is staged inside the courtroom; no dramatic monologues are delivered; justice is not served. Tamhane’s second feature, The Disciple (2020), while more kinetic in its camerawork (by Michal Sobociniski), proceeds at a similarly measured pace. Its narrative about the existential journey of Sharad (Aditya Modak),
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Tough times call for tough measures. For more than a year now, people all over the world have traded normalcy for safety, staying confined within their homes to check the spread of the rogue virus that has claimed more than three million lives around the world. However, when life returns to normal, and we all hope it will be sooner than later, one presumes that the audience wouldn’t want a reminder of these endless days of living in fear and worry. When they step out of their houses, without masks, to go to a theatre to watch a film, they might want to watch fare that takes their minds off the situation they have just overcome.