(sc) This is a movie that can best describe the correctness and professionalism of performing arts and fellow musicians. As the movie opens with the scene of a typical Mumbai old household, it instantly establishes a connect with the audience for the setting of the movie. It goes on to show the dexterity and the multi-cultural dimensions in a non-judgemental manner for an individual skilled in an art which is so rarely given public appreciation. A film review by Sudipto Chatterjee.
„The Violin Player“ (directed by Bauddhayan Mukherji) correctly portrays the need for financial security that drives professional musicians to accept assignments having no long term career growth opportunities. The film also shows one such side of the story wherein a couple clearly separates the professional commitments from the personal front. A good lesson in view is also that of the camera positioning and deftly portraying the intrinsic characteristics of human emotions of hesitancy, passion, frustration, pleasure and contentment all through the flicker of lights and camera positioning.
The story line is further emboldened when the urge to stand out in the crowd for every musician is portrayed when the protagonist accepts the assignment for a solo performance without depth from a total stranger. The stranger realising the true worthiness of an aspiring musician offers to give him a platform that would have an opportunity to elevate him to the next level of music accreditation.
This is where the lights and cinematography skills of the crew come to the fore when they deftly define the confines of the non-existent acoustics with lighting and over-the-shoot brilliance. The expertise of „The Violin Player“ is on display and it is then that he realises the true potential of his skill and possibilities. As the impromptu piece comes to an end at the end of the so-called solo performance, the passion hidden inside a musician comes to the fore when he continues to weave his own magic with the violin and actually stuns the stranger. The appreciation received by the violin player gives him the contention of being able to exhibit his skill and thereby increasing self-satisfaction of the profession he chooses to follow.
The curtain drops down as the protagonist exhibits two different sides of the same coin as far as human behaviour is concerned. One of „Hatred and contempt“ and the other of „Love and Empathy“ is beautifully portrayed at almost every stage of the central theme of the film.