The Disciple is a courageous and often quite brilliant portrayal of a man seeking to achieve purity in his discipline of choice, Indian classical music, with an idealism that is rarely seen in today's world. His reasons to choose this path are his father, who gave him endless lectures on the purity & joy of classical music and his gurus (both immediate and those he follows) that have set the path for enlightenment through complete devotion to their art.
While such devotion reaps rewards in fields like medicine, academics and other art forms, the issue is our protagonist, Sharad, is working in a field whose relevance is being lost. This can be observed both by the average age of the patrons of his music and the sparse audiences that are seen when such a performance is happening.
To Sharad's credit, his devotion is near absolute. He diligently looks after his guru, he does not go home or call home and even his job involves converting old tapes and LPs of rare classical music into digital format. His constant companions in this journey are tapes from an elusive and almost mythical guru called Maai. Maai famously never recorded her singing and sang only to achieve purity. She also says that the path of purity is lonely and very hard. All of this happens through her voiceover while Sharad's loneliness is made deeper by him driving his motorcycle in eerily empty Mumbai roads.
The performances, especially from Aditya Modak as Sharad, are very good and never over the top. Caricatures of classical singers about and to the credit of the cast, they remain true to their characters and are understated.
The movie is slow, ponderous and makes you think. Some reviewers are calling it dragging, mundane and boring. I did not see it that way. Yes, it may be long but it is never mundane or without meaning. In a way, this movie is also an attempt at cinematic purity of storytelling that is lost on many now.
I have been waiting for some time to get a follow up to "Court" from Chaitanya Tamhane. I had no idea this film was from him and only got to know it as the credits came. He is the Sharad to today's mainstream cinema. Hopefully he finds more patrons than Sharad does.
While such devotion reaps rewards in fields like medicine, academics and other art forms, the issue is our protagonist, Sharad, is working in a field whose relevance is being lost. This can be observed both by the average age of the patrons of his music and the sparse audiences that are seen when such a performance is happening.
To Sharad's credit, his devotion is near absolute. He diligently looks after his guru, he does not go home or call home and even his job involves converting old tapes and LPs of rare classical music into digital format. His constant companions in this journey are tapes from an elusive and almost mythical guru called Maai. Maai famously never recorded her singing and sang only to achieve purity. She also says that the path of purity is lonely and very hard. All of this happens through her voiceover while Sharad's loneliness is made deeper by him driving his motorcycle in eerily empty Mumbai roads.
The performances, especially from Aditya Modak as Sharad, are very good and never over the top. Caricatures of classical singers about and to the credit of the cast, they remain true to their characters and are understated.
The movie is slow, ponderous and makes you think. Some reviewers are calling it dragging, mundane and boring. I did not see it that way. Yes, it may be long but it is never mundane or without meaning. In a way, this movie is also an attempt at cinematic purity of storytelling that is lost on many now.
I have been waiting for some time to get a follow up to "Court" from Chaitanya Tamhane. I had no idea this film was from him and only got to know it as the credits came. He is the Sharad to today's mainstream cinema. Hopefully he finds more patrons than Sharad does.