India’s first global gong in 20 years!

While itrsquos not listed on his IMDb director Chaitanya Tamhane feels almost as if he has three features to his credit mdash Court 2014 The Disciple 2020 which drops on Netflix April 30 Third being Alfonso Cuaronrsquos Best Director Cinematographer and Foreign Film Oscar winner Roma 2018 Tamhane was around all through the filming of Roma besides during the edit Hersquos the only one who had read the moviersquos script not even the cast and crew had And the only one allowed to sit before the monitor while the movie was being shot ldquoIt was that kinda supersecret projectrdquoA mentorship programme had brought Cuaron Y Tu Mama Tambien Gravity and Tamhane together wherein the latter was neither assistant nor student ldquoIt was a dialogue between two creators Just that one artiste happens to be in a different phase of their careerrdquoA still from The DiscipleCuaron treated Tamhane as an equal ldquoa friendrdquo As is usual with the securely accomplished There was a scene during Romarsquos shoot that Tamhane felt wasnrsquot consistent with the rest of the film Cuaron tried a different take and turned to him to remark ldquoYour questions really freak me outrdquo Tamhane doesnrsquot specifically recall which scene perhaps to not deflect attention from the masterrsquos workHe was for the most part ldquoa fly on the wallrdquo mdash on occasion unwittingly distracting Cuaron by performing magic tricks during lunch break that the producers had to drag him out of Which isnrsquot a surprise ldquoAny filmlover and filmmaker would be fascinated by magic Itrsquos so close to cinema Cuaron kept asking me to show him more tricksrdquoHe wouldrsquove of course been first drawn to Tamhane like filmbuffs across for a proverbially Tiger Woodsian directorial debut the multilingual Court mdash a devastatingly realist portrayal of lower judiciary in IndiaChaitanya TamhaneThis is how the Mexican master is now executive producer of Tamhanersquos second film The Disciple mdash altogether in Marathi set in the ldquothrivingrdquo subculture of Hindustani classical music in Mumbai The only recent Indian folkclassical music and globalcinema connect I can think of is Paul Thomas Andersonrsquosconcert doc Junun 2015 filmed at the Mehrangarh Fort in JodhpurThatrsquos a soundtrack The Disciple dives way deeper into the gurushishya masterdisciple parampara which frames traditional learning of Hindustani classical musicItrsquos a world Tamhane was himself a journalistic outsider to taking around two years to simply interviewresearch examining ldquotruth and untruth point and counterpointrdquo and actually drafting the final script in about a month and half once hersquod eventually got to the tough first pageAlfonso CuaronA patient process I guess quite similar to Court Which he recalls was triggered off by a story hersquod heard of a person falsely arrested in a case The accused just needed a printout to prove his alibiinnocence But the cops in the station were bumbling over how to plug in the printer or produce a printout Tamhane was watching a typical American courtroom drama thereafter wondering for a comic idea ldquoWhat if I do a lsquoBong Joonho courtroom dramarsquo set in a lower court of Mumbairdquo He learnt about the lsquosystemrsquo as he went alongHe isnrsquot sure if there was an equivalent trigger for The Disciple But the starting point was essentially legends and anecdotes hersquod listen to mdash presumably from audiences experts and exponents mdash about the masters of Indian classical music ldquoModern day mythologies about djinns secret ragas long hours of practicehelliprdquoThe film primarily placed in 2006 follows the life of a young dedicated vocalist Aditya Modak and his evolving relationship with classical art his aged mentorguru Arun Dravid and the world around Hopefully Irsquom not revealing the scriptrsquos secret sauce to suggest this isnrsquot quite a herorsquos journey as it wereThat standard structure Tamhane wanted to steer clear of anyway ldquoWhatrsquos the point of a story that I know from the first scene how itrsquos gonna end There is anyway too much focus on the hero and his conquestdriven journey and his achievement A discourse like lsquoIf you try hard enough and believe in yourself yoursquoll get itrsquo No Thatrsquos not true for 99 per cent mdash people who work for us or clean our toilets have dreams and aspirations But they have zero upward mobilityrdquoThe other trope he evidently avoids given the subject is an aggressive tonedrama often associated with the tyranny of the masterstudent culture in music in particular Recall the more recent series Bandish Bandits Amazon Prime Video Or for that matter Damien Chazellersquos Whiplash 2014 Tamhane reasons ldquoThose deviations are based on personal observable truth mdash that artistes are just humans like you and me with down time contradictions and temptations There is no extreme success or extreme tragedy And we donrsquot all end up either superstars or drunk on the road We adapt to situations with so many greysrdquoThe film therefore isnrsquot fully clouded by the mythology surrounding the idea of the great artiste so to say It isnrsquot an unquestioning hagiography purposed around bhakti It is dialectic enoughThis may have something to do with Tamhanersquos journalistic approach itself and the attendant occupational hazard mdash that Shakespearean saying about familiarity and contempt ldquoResearch is a journey you set off on with romance in your head The more you know the romance gets demystified which can also happen by knowing the artistes rather than merely hearing about them As a fiction writer you have to infuse the romance back into the work mdash reminding yourself why you were fascinated by the subject in the first placerdquoThe filmrsquos third lead character or perhaps second in order of appearance is a voiceover of a late great vocalist named Maai On the script Tamhane had written this part as God Hearing an interview of veteran Marathi filmmaker Sumitra Bhave 78 he knew hersquod found that authoritative voice that almost guides the narrative mdash managing to convince her to make her acting debut Bhave passed away on April 19Similarly Vira Sathidar Nagpurbased Dalit activist who played the protagonist the lok shahi poet in Court is no more ldquoHis death on April 13 has completely changed my relationship with the film He was the facerdquo Tamhane says Like Court The Disciple chiefly stars nonprofessional actorsThe lingering steady wide frames from a distance allow audiences an interrupted access into the world Tamhane surveys mdash revealing through layer after layer the fine details of classical music as a scenesubculture mdash playing with sound and playing off real people if you mayThe Bombay for the most part is a quieter version of the city ldquoThere is some sorcery to depict the period mdash 2006 is very different from Bombay in 2021 Also the city starts out as full of possibilities for the young lead character Sharad The quiet night becomes his havencocoon where he doesnrsquot have to confront reality The city starts getting noisy dynamic and closing in on the character as his journey progressesrdquoThrough that journey you discover more than a thing or two about classical music of course ldquoThat like a politician yoursquore young at 40 in this field mdash that itrsquos impossible to be a flukeoverratedrdquoSubtly Tamhane also roundtrips to make a more personal point about art itself and its relationship to patronage The gurushishya in The Disciple belongs to a fictional Alwar gharana The gharanas as their names suggest relate to princely states that donrsquot exist anymore Does art suffer as a resultTamhane points out ldquoLook at patronage for cinema Is that why we confuse breadth for depth quantity for quality There are no independent institutions to fund cinema in India anymore Like there are in Europe and elsewhere mdashand thatrsquos why you find more refined films commenting on the human condition Here itrsquos a do or die kinda situationrdquoThe Disciple is the first Indian film in 20 years mdash ever since the New Yorkbased Mira Nairrsquos Monsoon Wedding 2001 mdash to compete at the main competition stage of any of the Big Three global film festivals mdash Cannes Berlin VeniceTamhane picked up Best Screenplay along with FIPRESCI special jury prize for Best Film at Venice Having seen the film only now unlike when Jallikattu was sent as Indiarsquos Oscars entry itrsquos a mystery to me why The Disciple was overlooked It should piss Tamhane off He reasons ldquoBut this is a question for others to ponder over We did what we could which is to applyrdquo Maybe guru Cuaron shouldrsquove weighed in