Spoiler Alert : This write up is more my musings than just a review, so those of you who haven't seen the movie and want to watch it might want to wait and first watch the movie before you read it. If you are not very keen about the movie, you may as well read it. You may want to see the movie next- you never know :-) 

The Disciple

-              By Chaitanya Tamhane

This movie depicts the journey of  a  young man ‘Sharad Nerulkar’ who has dreams about being an highly accomplished classical musician.

Sharad from a middle-class background is learning classical music in Mumbai from his Guru. Sharad’s Guru as well as  Sharad’s father revere “Maai” not only as a Guru but almost a God. Maai’s presence in the entire movie as only a voice brings in an interesting element of the intangible. Sharad gets his interest in music from his father who himself had dreams of being a musician but all he ended up doing was writing a book on music. Sharad’s father had a romantic notion of being an accomplished artist; an unrealistic notion of his own talent. But whether his own dreams were fulfilled or not – he does succeed in passing on those dreams to Sharad.

It is difficult to figure out whether Sharad’s musical aspirations are really his own or are they the unfulfilled dreams of his father that he carries on his shoulders, not at all aware of the burden that he has made his own.

Sharad’s character has the discipline required to learn the techniques but the inner seeking, the depth required to touch the soul of music – that is somewhere missing.

He attempts very genuinely to follow the ‘sadhana’ as prescribed by ‘Maai’ but can true sadhana be developed by following instructions? Sharad intellectually understands ‘sadhana’ and ‘sacrifice’ but somewhere in the drama of real life, falls short of reaching there. In his attempt to follow ‘Maai’s voice’ has Sharad drowned the voice of his own conscience?

There’s a remarkable scene in Sharad’s childhood when his father makes him sit for riyaaz on a Sunday morning while the mother urges the father to let the child go out and play. At the same time, the boy’s playmate comes in and asks the father permission to go out and play. The boy’s response in all this is very telling. The boy does not fidget or get up from his sit or even grumble as long as his father is teaching him music – in fact he is following his father’s instructions in a matter-of-fact way but the moment the father says he can go out to play – there isn’t a single moment’s hesitation in running out to play. What is it that Sharad had really wanted on a Sunday morning? Cut to many many years later – the night of the Guru’s death. Sharad comes home to watch a cabaret dance on TV. The intense ‘disinterest’ with which Sharad follows the rise of a young girl who becomes a singing session on one of the popular singing star show speaks volumes about the dilemma Sharad faces in following the strict sadhana to reach the pinnacle of music versus his unacknowledged need for success and popularity.

His musical benchmarks are set up by his father and his Guru through the voice of  Maai. They have personally experienced ‘Maai’s divinity in the field of music’ but Sharad is chasing a divinity which he has only experienced second hand. Whose dream is he chasing?

Maai’s line “ tantr shikavta yete pun bhaav shikavta yeth nahi” [techniques can be taught but devotion cannot be taught] says it all.

Unfortunately Sharad till the end does not realise the fact that he is carrying the ghost of his father’s dreams and ends up walking exactly on his father’s path. The love for music that he genuinely has has died a sad death in his chasing the musical notes of someone else’s tanpura. And he considers that as his defeat.

 “The Ultimate Goal” by Vikram Sood

Vikram Sood, former chief of RAW (Research and Analysis Wing- India’s external intelligence agency) explores the power of purposeful narratives – and how the self-proclaimed powerful countries have used it to create and sustain their own powers in the intricate game of political statecraft. “A narrative may not necessarily be based on truth, but it does need to be plausible, have a meaning and create a desired perception”

This book talks about something that any thinking individual would be aware of – The author here gives us the concrete evidence of the same with fact based data. Sood draws the curtain from the western concept of ‘nationalism’, which is limited to suit its own ends. In his own words “Nationalism in other countries has never been an accepted ideology in the West”; “ Retention of influence and privilege has been the endeavor of the Big Powers through periodic exhibition of power and a constant narrative”.

It throws light on how the so-called world leaders aggressively dominate and influence world opinion through well timed and well researched narratives.

The book is divided into 12 chapters with each of the chapters dealing with a country’s role in creating its own narrative- including a chapter on the role of Hollywood as a narrative factory for the West- esp the US and the corporates role in creating worldwide narrative based purely on capitalist profit, and one chapter on India. It also explores the role of worldwide Intelligence agencies such as CIA and the KGB in subtle propaganda of the narrative that is desired by each country.

The nexus between the governments, intelligence agencies and the media has contributed to the spread of propaganda for the powerful nations – helping them stay more powerful. The book also briefly peeps into the lacunae that Indian media has in the international market. “ India has nothing beyond its borders. Very few Indian publications have any presence in important locations in the neighbourhood and much less in other important capitals in the world. They mostly rely on Western news agencies for coverage of events, which means that in many cases, we end up believing the Western interpretation of events beyond our borders.”

While the world citizens hanker for peace, especially in areas of strife and violence – this book opens the readers’ eyes to the profitability of war for countries who are the major weapon makers. “ Wars are profitable, esp for a country that exports the largest amount of weaponry and equipment in the world. Wars are essential for the consumption, replacement and improvement of weapons and weapon systems; otherwise the industry would become moribund. All weapons come with a use-by date, but they must be used periodically for profits to roll in. Wars fought by other powers and not on one’s own territory are doubly profitable, not only for the manufacturers of the weapons but for ancillary industries that provide the logistics as well….as long as the world must deal with the military- industrial-intelligence- technology complex working in tandem in the US, this hidden narrative will not change. There will be wars to make more wars.”  The book attempts to give a fact based,  account of the way the world leaders use all resources in their power to create and tell their stories to the world – not as they are but as they want it to be known. “…Grand statements about liberty, democracy and freedom are essential for an overarching all time narrative. Profit in national interest in the bottom line.”

In the chapter on “Empires, Immigration, Nationalism and Islam”, the author explores the Anglo-American partnership to own the oil market as well as uphold the ‘White man supremacy’. “Richard Falk, professor of International Relations at Princeton University, once said that Western foreign policy as propagated through the media was a self righteous, one-way moral screen, reflecting positive images of Western values and its innocence portrayed as threatened, which then validated a campaign for unrestricted violence….. Nationalism is evil and dangerous if it is neither American nor British because, by its very nature, this would at some stage or the other conflict with Western interests.” While there is an attempt to be objective, one cannot miss the tilt towards the right wing ideology. Surprisingly, it does not feel out of place.

The chapters on China and Russia deeply delve into the struggle for power of these two countries vis-à-vis the West. Sood brings to light the superficial war of ideologies of democracy vis-à-vis communism; capitalism vis-à-vis socialism where the jargon is used as a means to the  real end which lies in real power over the resources of the world. Putin’s role in the rise of Trump makes an interesting read in this part of the book. The power hungry Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s claim to glory in his attempt to become the next ‘Mao’ or the premature hubris of China on the world stage is something the world has to worry about.

Given the fact that the author is an Indian, the chapter on India really leaves one wanting for more. The Indian corporate scene is conspicuous by its absence. As the author himself says in the introduction “I have relied extensively on the Western sources, as global narratives in the past 150 years have emerged mostly from there…… References to India are from within the nation, because that’s where the genuine Indian narrative lies; especially the young, who constitute the majority and to whom the future belongs. It is important to understand them and project their points of view if India is to build its own narrative. It is to them that this book attempts to explain how the real world works, without being judgmental”

A book whose ideas and thoughts definitely go beyond the data and information given within its pages. Vikram Sood gently pushes the readers to separate the grain from the chaff and use a discerning mind while trying to make sense of the world. 

ZaadaZadati - By Vishwas Patil (Review)

Zaadazadati 

By Vishwas Patil