'The Disciple'-A mixed bag of learning

The film “The Disciple” was released on Netflix on 30 th April.,2021. ?Alfonso Cuarón, the celebrated director of films like “Roma”, “Gravity” is the producer of this film. A director of international fame, producing a Marathi film is a rare instance. In a sense this very fact has sealed the fate of the film and that was exactly what happened. The film carried the day at the Venice Film Festival. A youth named Chaitanya Tamhane has shouldered the multiple responsibilities as the screen-play writer, the compiler and the director. This director had made a highly matured commentary on law and justice earlier in his film“Court” in 2014. He has maintained his recognition as a man who denies ?traditional styles of presentation. The theme chosen by him is so rarely tackled that it enhanced my eagerness to see the film.

While presenting the journey of Sharad Nerulkar, a youth bent on practicing music as his life’s work, the film makes a close assessment of the teacher-disciple tradition, the perseverance of the student and his practice. In spite of his diligence and the fact that he has received lessons in music from his father during childhood, Sharad,devoid of original talent, fails and collapses after a number of unsuccessful efforts. He is frustrated. His teacher, aware of this situation, looks helpless. While performing in a concert, Sharad finds that he is not coming up to the expectations off him, and leaves the stage halfway through the performance and bids a permanent goodbye to music.

Sharad, who had taken a vow of devoting his entire life to music, marries and starts his family life. This is the general theme of the film. The film, having the arch of Indian classical music, also makes blunt commentary on the traditions, superstitions and sublimation in it. The film runs for about two hours. It presents a number of scenes about the practice of music, rehearsals, along with the events in the house of Sharad like the production of his friend’s cassettes and their sale, the restlessness of Sharad and his frustration.

The camera presents these things in very engaging manner. The natural balance of the film has been wonderfully maintained, as the film progresses. One feels that one is actually experiencing all these things. The style of putting the series of shots, is the strongest point of the film, and it does the trick. The modern style of shooting, full of eye catching and quickly changing scenes, has been rejected by the director, preferring to go at leisure and thus lingering on the scenes. This needs tremendous courage, and the director displays it amply.

He does not hesitate to use long shots that run up to even two minutes. The scene where the singer leaves the stage, being aware that he cannot do justice to his performance, has been caught by the director through long shots. The camera sees everything from a place behind the spectators. The uneasiness, the hustle-bustle and the pin-drop silence in the hall have been mixed so nicely that this climax becomes a dominant aspect of the film. There are no close shots, no recording of the reactions of the Guru, no shot capturing the expressions on the face of Sharad, when he lays down his tool and yet the scene has become memorable.

The film also does not fail to capture the present-day atmosphere in the field of classical music: the knowledgeable audience as well as the petty/trivial audience submitted to the market system, clapping at the tabla instead of the song. Here we also see the denunciation of the reality-shows in classical music that are infested with showiness. The film “The Disciple” also exposes a number of fables in the field of classical music. But, while doing so, it fails to take note of the fact that classical music is so full of touching aspects and hard penances.

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The artist Aditya Modak has presented the central role of Sharad in a very apt manner. It is a nice example of the fact that when you get the correct feel of the role, you need no special efforts for acting. The significant thing is that Aditya Modak has no classical-music background. His teacher Arun Dravid – the disciple of Kishori Amonkar and ?Mogubai Kurdikar – looks artificial at times, but he has maintained the balance of the role well. He presents the passion of the teacher. The chemistry between the teacher and the disciple adds liveliness to it.

The journey of the sequence of shots, their length, and the story has been properly oriented on the screen. On one occasion, however, the arrangement of scenes by the director is opposite to the natural style of the director. Mai is a talented woman in the field of music. Sharad hears her thoughts and ideas about music at nighttime, as he travels on his motorbike. The scene appears three or four times in the film. In a city, where streets are always crowded, he drives his motorbike while listening to her and not a single vehicle crosses him. [Only on one occasion we see a few vehicles, but they travel at an artificially slow speed.] It looks strange and odd that Sharad could hear Mai clearly and can travel at a slow pace in a city like Mumbai.

After seeing him driving and listening to Mai twice, when the same scene flashed on the screen, I said that we will listen to the voice of Mai and it came true. Should a director be so obvious and tailor-made? May be that he chose the situation so that the spectator listens to Mai and not be engrossed in the traffic. But, for this impact, was it necessary to freeze happening Mumbai? Many a film lovers must have this question in their mind. Well, one feels that the director could have displayed the shots to prove his concentration on Mai’s voice among the din and crowd in Mumbai. Well, even this flaw could have been overlooked, had the director been able to present the spirit of the story in a more honorable manner.

One can feel the speciousness and airiness of the building on paper where good elevation is presented, but on some occasions the expected ambiance is absent. The same want is noticeable in this film. It does not make any comments on Sharad’s journey from a good disciple to his goodbye to music. The dilemma presented in the film regarding learning to sing, that too classical singing and absorbing it into the mind and heart just presents the format of the process. The film does not touch the basic challenges.

There are many an artist – singers and instrumentalists – who, in spite of good preparation, does not succeed. In spite of good responses during the concerts and setting the concerts on fire by their presentation, their failure to enjoy what they look for in life is the real tragedy of many an artist. The film could have taken a tour in search of this tragedy. But nothing of the sort happens in the film.

The failure of Sharad comes to us as the failure of a hardworking man of ordinary capability. The shallow journey of the Indian classical music makes one feel that the film moves around the shores of Indian Classical Music. As a result, the story, the screenplay and the film, instead of becoming universal, move in the circumference of a person and melts in the same place.

Dr Keshav Sathaye.

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