Sacred Arts: Devotion and Disillusionment in Chaitanya Tamhane's 'The Disciple'

In its tale of a student who discovers and loses his ardour for Indian classical music, Chaitanya Tamhane's Marathi-language feature depicts the near-religious process that can be involved in mastering a traditional form, as well as the struggle between the magic of art and the more mundane economic realities surrounding its production. As Anthony Carew finds, it's a narrative that echoes the difficulties the director himself faced while making the film – as well as the troubled situation faced more broadly by cinema today.

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Indian cinema, Balaji Telefilms, Court, magic, magician, Satyajit Ray, The Prestige, Alfonso Cuarón, Roma, Hindustani classical music, raga, raag, tanpura, Michał Sobociński, ascetic, guru, Whiplash, Inside Llewyn Davis, art criticism, cancel culture, mythology, Netflix