A slow-build marvel about someone trying to reconcile the practical with the sublime.

| Aug 11, 2021

The genuinely talented who are left with no option but to languish in anonymity. The Disciple overwhelmed me with adeep sense of loss that underlines it.

| May 18, 2021

Does a movie about a devoted modern-day practitioner of Hindustani classical music sound overly esoteric? The Disciple, written and directed by Chaitanya Tamhane, is anything but. What it's really about is the spiritual balm that great art can provide.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 14, 2021

If you let yourself fall into [Indian music], it's really quite beautiful... And this film explores all of that, along with the idea of "What is it that makes you a master of what you do?"

| May 13, 2021

It's beautifully shot by the writer-director Chaitanya Tamhane and takes its cue from the intoxicating rhythms of the music to become slowly, often infuriatingly (Sharad should just quit, and we know this), beguiling.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 8, 2021

Both a welcome introduction to a kind of music we rarely hear onscreen and a richly layered story of a young man's artistic struggle.

| May 5, 2021

This is a film with muted but mysterious gifts.

| May 3, 2021

In its depiction of Guruji's mastery, "The Disciple" conjures the wonders and the mysteries of a life that is itself a work of art.

| May 1, 2021

The Disciple is a great example of when filmmaking and acting styles complement each other, and it's that bond that feels to be a significant part of what makes Tamhane's film so special, so resonant.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 30, 2021

Well shot, produced, written and directed. Chaitanya Tamhane sends a transcendental postcard from India filled with soothing music and enlightening insights as the old mixes with the new.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 12, 2020

Director Chaitanya Tamhane immerses his viewers into Sharad's all-consuming world.

| Sep 17, 2020

Chaitanya Tamhane gives full dimension to the rich, complex, and sometimes contradictory nature of the relationship between disciple and guru.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 13, 2020

Anyone who's ever devoted themselves fully to a craft, only to suspect that the rest of the world barely gives a shit, will relate to The Disciple.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 12, 2020

The truth lies inward, The Disciple teaches us - and it often hurts.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 7, 2020

"The Disciple" is more about the journey than the destination, with a conclusion that suggests the student never really becomes the teacher when the subject is his own life.

| Original Score: A- | Sep 4, 2020

The film's universality lies in the way it conveys the inner struggles of a musician aware he or she may never be good enough, just like an artist, dancer or writer plagued by fears of mediocrity.

| Sep 4, 2020

I wish that I enjoyed The Disciple as much as I admired it.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 4, 2020

A study of the quiet downgrading of lofty aspirations and gradual clouding of purity of vision.

| Sep 4, 2020