The Disciple (2020) dir. Chaitanya Tamhane

A beautiful Netflix original that takes seriously religious mysticism, in a Hinduism variety, The Disciple (2020), through its pairing of seraphic visuals with hypnotic music and sounds, navigates the ephemeral and enchants the view in the process.

Unfortunately, the studio doesn’t seem to have placed much confidence in the film. Despite almost exclusively using my Netflix account to watch Indian, East Asian, and religion-influenced films, priming my algorithm for exactly this sort of movie, the Alfonso Cuarón-produced The Disciple still didn’t appear in any relevant categories on my profile. But hopefully this is a unique problem to my profile, because this is a splendid film that Netflix would do best to champion rather than bury.

First-time actor Aditya Modak, as Sharad Nerulkar, plays a faithfully devoted student to Guruji (Arun Dravid), a guru of a particular style of Hindustani classical music. Sharad’s relationship to Guruji dwarfs his other students because Guruji also discipled his father. Maai, Guruji’s teacher, was a fabled master of their style who refused recordings of her music, and apparently even audiences. She played for her guru and the divine, she clarifies. Maai, Guruji, Sharad’s father (Kiran Yadnyopavit), and Sharad himself see themselves as the last line of defense for Hindustani classical music, as globalization and technology threaten the centuries old tradition. Sharad, despite his devotion, just misses the mark in his singing. Something’s not right, and he avoids the answer like COVID-19: he’s not as passionate about Hindustani as he thinks.

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