Chaitanya Tamhane’s The Disciple (2020) | Zoo Entertainment
On screen, Hindustani classical musicians have been mostly played as caricatures, venerable otherworldly figures in shawls or eccentric comics. Till Chaitanya Tamhane’s
The Disciple hit Netflix with a slow-burning story of an idealistic young khayal singer’s existential struggle.
Here finally was a film that spoke of the joy and terror of being an inheritor of a formidable legacy, the complexity of guru-shishya ties and the desperate fight for recognition and space. And the best part – it had a cast of real-life musicians, not actors hamming it wildly.
You would have thought the film would be greeted with whoops of joy by the fraternity but what
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),
Deepika Bhide Bhagwat, and
Kiran Yadnyopavit, among others. If you re interested, you can watch it on Netflix now. Take a look.
Here s the Inside Look featurette for Chaitanya Tamhane s
The Disciple, direct from Netflix s YouTube:
You can also watch the original Netflix trailer for Tamhane s
The Disciplehere, to see even more footage.
If you stop striving for excellence, did you ever strive for excellence? A musician’s unadulterated devotion, a mirage-like quest for divinity, and the courage to fight your own mediocrity. The Disciple is the tale of an Indian classical vocalist, Sharad Nerulkar, searching for the traditional absolute in a contemporary city that never stops hustling.