Review | Venice 2020: The Disciple movie review – India’s competition entry an eye-opening exploration of Indian classical music
- The Disciple tells the story of a man who devotes his life to becoming an Indian classical vocalist
- Director Chaitanya Tamhane’s 2014 film Court won best film in the Orizzonti category at the Venice Film Festival
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3.5/5 stars
The first Indian competition entry at the Venice Film Festival since Mira Nair’s 2001 Golden Lion-winning Monsoon Wedding , The Disciple is an eye-opening exploration of a musical world that many outside India will not be familiar with.
The film is written and directed by Chaitanya Tamhane, who made the 2014 legal drama Court that won top honours in the Venice festival’s Orizzonti section. Lending his support to The Disciple is Roma director Alfonso Cuarón, credited here as an executive producer.
The story follows Sharad (Aditya Modak) in his quest to become an Indian classical vocalist, a traditional art form so rigorous “even two lifetimes are not enough” to train in it. Still, Sharad is doing all he can to unlock his talent.
He practises diligently. He attends meditation classes. And as he bikes around modern-day Mumbai, he’s even listening to audio of a seemingly acclaimed musician who, rumour has it, never allowed her music to be recorded. “Your mind has to be pure and unblemished,” she intones, like a musical swami.
That Sharad is also editing old VHS footage of classical performances adds to the film’s notion of how we document the past and, indeed, art. He sells CDs of recordings and, perhaps as a way for Tamhane to mark the passing of time in a story that slips across the years, there are even brief references to YouTube and USB sticks.
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Another marker will be the moustache that Sharad grows as he gets older, but The Disciple asks its audience to pay attention with a narrative that, like life, doesn’t stand still.
Largely, the film deals with Sharad’s frustrations at his own artistic limitations. “Why are you so restless?” he’s asked. Practice, it seems, does not always make perfect. “Technique can be taught. Truth cannot.”
One of the more intriguing subplots involves a young rural girl with ambitions to sing, who makes her way to Mumbai in The Fame India, a glitzy reality television talent contest that seems a world away from the localised performances Sharad is giving.
With flashbacks to Sharad’s youth, notably in one tender scene on a train with his father (Kiran Yadnyopavit), Tamhane paints a broad portrait of the (would-be) artist. The further we’re drawn into the story, the more certain themes become apparent – ideas of legacy, egotism, mythology and preserving musical tradition.
Featuring some beguiling interludes of Hindustani music, The Disciple is a challenging and complex tale of personal growth and self-realisation.
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