'Mastery' on Disney+ Hotstar: Subodh Kerkar, Sarah Todd & 9 artists talk about India and their art in a new docu-series

Goan artist Subodh Kerkar (left) and Australian chef Sarah Todd who runs a restaurant in Goa are two of the 11 artists in a new documentary series 'Mastery: Journey of Excellence', streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

Last month, Goan artist Subodh Kerkar’s performative-art installation The Keel travelled to the Netherlands. The work, which dwells on the inseparable bond between life and the ocean — a leitmotif in his work — saw 50 participants, dressed in black, sitting in the pattern of a boat’s keel, on the shores of Amsterdam on IJmuiden beach. Earlier this month, a movie of it, along with two other ocean-themed installations, was shown at LaLaLand, a festival showcasing art and music from India, in Ruigoord. In 2022, Kerkar presented a visual performative work with 50 fishermen and 5,000 mussel shells, The Fishermen and the Boat in his backyard, in north Goa’s Ashvem beach.

An old image of artist Subodh Kerkar's performative art work 'Keel'. (Photo: @subodhgoa via X)

Saligao-based Kerkar, who makes use of whatever material (wooden boat planks, oyster crust) washes up on the shore, has taken art out from the galleries and into the public spaces like the beach and has advocated for sustainable art practices through his Ganesha installations. This year is the birth centenary of that other maverick artist from Goa the late FN Souza, who’d co-founded Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group, and two years ago, Kerkar made 250 Souza-inspired works, drawing on clay, on terracotta tablets, evocative of Souza’s signature style (grimaces and grotesque figures), “I have borrowed from Souza but brought in my own coin,” Kerkar had told The Indian Express. Souza was never a sculptor, so to re-imagine Souza’s paintings as sculptures, so as to pay homage to the master, was new.

For the self-proclaimed “ocean artist” and founder of Museum of Goa, the ocean has been a real presence in his life and, consequently, in his art. He is one of the 11 artists being featured in a new Disney+ Hotstar documentary series, Mastery: Journey of Excellence. On the show, Kerkar, 64, recalls what his artist father Chandrakant Kerkar taught him, “When I walked with my father on the seaside, he’d tell me, ‘watch the waves break’. The waves would come and wet the sand. Then a big wave comes, rushes, and wets new sand. In your artistic endeavour, in anything you do, you need to wet new sand. Wetting new sand, discovering something new is very important when you are in a creative process.” Kerkar was born two years before the liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule (1961) and grew up to be a practising doctor before he got bored and returned to art.

“Art makes you beyond, sort of, this nonsense of religious and national divisions, and that is very important. You can’t imagine a [Hindustani classical vocalist] Bhimsen Joshi running with a dagger after [Hindustani classical tabla doyen and Zakir Hussain’s father] Alla Rakha and these riots, for they are above all that. For me, I don’t need to go to a temple or church or mosque to pray, when I create art, that itself is a prayer for me,” Kerkar says, most pertinently, on the series whose theme is ‘creating an imprint on time’. And who better than artists to capture moments in time?

Speaking about the series, Kerkar says, “Art is often Greek and Latin to many. A veil of mystery is woven around it. This series attempts to lift that veil and make art accessible to all.” “Mastery by Stonex delves deep into the lives of esteemed artists, exploring their creative processes, internal struggles, and the lasting imprint they aspire to leave on time,” says Mriidu Khosla, founder of Zcyphher Films, who produced and directed each of the 11 episodes of Mastery.

Dancer Meenakshi Srinivasan in the documentary series 'Mastery', on Disney+ Hotstar.

Powered by Stonex, the documentary series Mastery, which premiered on July 3, delves into the lives of India’s modern-day artists, through interviews and behind-the-scenes visuals, traversing seven artforms: music, sculpture, traditional painting, literature, architecture, contemporary digital and performance art, and film. The series features Kerkar, architect Rooshad Shroff, Carnatic musician Sandeep Narayan, installation artists Lekha Washington, anonymous artist Princess Pea, sitarist Rishabh Rikiram, dancer Meenakshi Srinivasan, conceptual artist Vibha Galhotra, actor Priya Malik, chef Sarah Todd and artist-turned-squirrel mother Benitha Perciyal.

But why would a natural stones and marbles company make a documentary series on artists? Those at Stonex assert that “crafting with natural stone demands unmatched precision and expertise. To sculpt a masterpiece, each cut and every stroke must be flawless” similarly, art virtuosos display “mastery, i.e. precision and expertise” through their artwork which “capture time”.

Sushant Pathak, CMO of Stonex Group, says, “Art has the power to transcend boundaries and connect people on a profound level. With this docu-series, we aim to celebrate the extraordinary talent and passion of artists who are shaping the cultural landscape today. Our brand purpose is ‘Creating an imprint on time’ and this series is an ode to 11 legends who have created an imprint on time by achieving ‘Mastery’ in their respective fields. From a journey of an artist becoming a squirrel mother, a musician who aligns with soulful well-being, an actor turned acclaimed designer, to an architect becoming a global dance performer, each story presents a bold inspiration and unique narrative to the audience of Disney+Hotstar.”

Conceptual artist Vibha Galhotra (left) and installation artist Lekha Washington in 'Mastery'.

The documentary series Mastery, however, isn’t a new concept. It hearkens back to similar docu-series on artists that have come before it, like The Creative Indians, directed by Manil and Rohit Gupta, which transitioned from television to Netflix, among others. In the most-populated country in the world, that is known for its arts, it is only the better that the citizens know who these artists are through more such shows and series. In Mastery, if Kerkar is taking India, through his work, out to the world, there is India-born, US-raised singer Sandeep Narayan going back to his roots here, and Australian chef Sarah Todd who has made India her home.

Goa is also the where one can find Sarah Todd. Chef, model, restaurateur and cookbook author, she wears many hats. Recall the Australian finalist putting aloo-gobhi on the table of MasterChef Australia in 2014? There was a time when the then Australian model was made to change into 70 clothes in a day to walk the ramp, flustered she knew it was time for a change. Food was something she was always passionate about and so she studied French cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris. But it would be Indian food that would eventually draw her to the country where she’d travel for a decade and cook with the locals to understand Indian cuisine, which she calls “a technical cuisine” and was “quite daunted by in the beginning…there was so much information…so much to learn, from the spice blends to the Hindi and Punjabi names of the spices,” she says on her Mastery episode.

In 2015, she set up her first restaurant Antares in Goa, which was documented in SBS Australia televised series My Restaurant in India. One day, she saw her restaurant go up in flames. “It felt like I was losing my arm. I was very emotional about it,” she says on the show. Earlier this year, she opened another restaurant in Goa, set among the ruins of a 250-year-old villa in Goa’s Vagator, cooking under the banner of Hyderabad’s established eatery, The Sanctuary Bar & Kitchen. La mer et la terre (the sea and the land) is the inspiration behind her menu, blending balchão with tagliatelle or crab cakes with xacuti. Making food is an art in itself and that’s the reason Todd finds her way into this battery of artists on the show.

Carnatic musician Sandeep Narayan (left) and sitarist Rishabh Rikiram in 'Mastery'.

Also featured on the show is Carnatic vocalist Sandeep Narayan. Born and raised in Los Angeles, the US, and having learnt from his vocalist mother Shubha Narayan, Sandeep blends Carnatic and other genres, from classic rock to hip-hop, to create fusion. “The Mastery docu-series effectively highlights the unbridled passion that fuels artists in their creative pursuits. Yet each artist’s journey remains uniquely distinct. It was exciting for me to take part in a series that explores diverse art forms and brings them to the mainstream cultural discourse,” says Narayan.