Sarvam Thaala Mayam

Sarvam Thaala Mayam
File:Sarvam Thaala Mayam Poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rajiv Menon
Produced by	Latha Menon
Written by	Rajiv Menon
Starring	G. V. Prakash Kumar Nedumudi Venu Aparna Balamurali Vineeth Kumaravel
Music by	Original Songs: A. R. Rahman Rajiv Menon (One song) Background score: A. R. Rahman Qutub-E-Kripa
Cinematography	Ravi Yadav
Edited by	Anthony
Production company	Mindscreen Film Institute
Distributed by	Jio Studios Sakthi Film Factory
Release date	1 February 2019
Running time	130 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Sarvam Thaala Mayam (transl. Omnipresence of Rhythm), also titled Madras Beats, is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language musical drama film written and directed by Rajiv Menon. The film stars G. V. Prakash Kumar and Aparna Balamurali in the lead roles, with a supporting cast including Nedumudi Venu, Vineeth, Kumaravel, Santha Dhananjayan, and Dhivyadharshini. The film features music composed by A. R. Rahman, cinematography by Ravi Yadav, and editing by Anthony.

Returning to direction after 19 years, Menon makes a comeback with a film that is relevant, entertaining, and inspirational in parts. The film released on 1 February 2019. The film was a box office success.

Plot

This is a story about a famous mridangam player named Vembu Iyer and his student Peter Johnson, son of an expert mridangam maker named Johnson who is a crazy Vijay fan, collide.

Earlier Peter is a care-free brat who neither has any interest in his father's Mrudangam making business nor in his own career. He started wooing a nurse called Saara while she kept him some distance due to his approach. Then one day, on his father's insistence he went to deliver mrudangam to Vembu Iyer's concert where he was allowed to watch his program. After observing Iyer's concert, Peter started admiring him and decided to join as a student to learn mrudangam from him.

After observing Peter, Iyer had understood that he has talent but rejected him due to lack of discipline and consistency. To prove Iyer wrong, Peter tried hard to change himself which constoned by his mother and worried about his future. Finally Iyer allowed Peter as his student.

Later Peter was mistreated by Iyer's Assistant Mani because of his lower caste. It was noticed by Iyer, who warns him to be good with his students. Mani confesses his dissatisfaction over him saying he did not support his career as mrudangam player and used him. This angered Iyer, who sacked him from the job in front of Peter, so Mani swears revenge on Iyer and Peter for his humiliation.

Later Peter became good friend with Nandagopal 'Nandu' a NRI and a Harvard University PhD dropout who came to learn Mrudangam from Iyer. Meanwhile, Mani joined as a Judge in a classical music instrument reality show called 'Sangeetha Samrat' with the help of his younger sister Anjana who is a crooked socialite and works as a VJ. Peter was very passionate about the beats of Mrudangam and became one of the favorite students of Iyer. Meanwhile, Saara realized her love for Peter and they start dating.

Anjana sets a trap to humiliate Iyer. She invited Nandu to perform on her reality show and makes him believe that it was telecasted only in the USA. Nandu came along with Peter, who consistently warns him to not perform without their teacher's permission. After knowing that it was a trap to humiliate them Nandu leaves the place without any warning to Peter. Without knowing the facts, Peter enters the studio to find Nandu, but he was focused on "live". Then with no option left, Peter gets ready to play mrudangam which gets severely humiliated by Mani and Anjana, making him seem useless and directly criticize Iyer. After knowing the issue, Iyer questions Peter on why he went to perform on the stage. Peter takes the blame on himself to save Nandu. The angered Iyer bangs Peter out saying it is a real humiliation for his musical knowledge for believing in such a useless student.

Later at Nandu's home, Nandu blames Peter for his mistakes and Peter challenges Nandu he will be overpowered by him one day. After these events, Peter became depressed and started having drugs, which worries his parents. Then it was noticed by Saara and takes him to her home and later she makes him realise that the music is everywhere which is built in nature and encourages him to explore the world to learn Thaalam(beats). Then Peter had inspired those words and started a journey on his own way to learn different types of beat instruments.

Meanwhile, The Sageetha Samrat show became successful after completion of 2 successful seasons and all the Iyer's students including Nandu fascinated over the popularity and leaves him. Finally he understands that he needs to mend his ways according to the world or else he cannot transfer his musical knowledge to the further generations and he realized that Peter is his heir for his knowledge of music and calls him back.

Peter happily joins him back to continue learn mrudangam for to win the show and to gain his teacher's respect back. Meanwhile, Nandu Joined hands with Mani and started taking training from him to win the show. After knowing that Iyer is also showing interest in this show and Peter was also participating in this show the duo became cautious. However Peter and Nandu managed to come on the finals in the program, before starting the show Peter forgot the beat which Iyer had trained but surprisingly it was answered by Nandu to Iyer. Then Mani comes in front of them and challenges Iyer that he will prove him that he is the best teacher than him and humiliates both in front of people for his humiliation as his revenge that's why he trained Nandu well of Iyer compositions to counter them. After hearing this Iyer advises Peter to stay on the same strategy.

In the show while countering Nandu, Peter remembers different beat instrumental music he has learned from and applies all the beats in Mrudangam which gets joy to the Audience. No option left Mani decides to declare Peter as the winner in the show which constoned by Nandu. Later Iyer left the stage which Peter makes fear that his teacher will get angry on him for not followed his strategy. But Iyer feels proud of him and happily claims Peter as his student. Finally the film ends with Peter now a celebrity giving performance along with his teacher Vembu Iyer.

Cast

• G. V. Prakash Kumar as Peter Johnson
• Nedumudi Venu as Vembhu Iyer (Palakollu Rama Sastry in Telugu version)
• Aparna Balamurali as Sara (Saramma)
• Dhivyadharshini as Anjana
• Vineeth as Mani
• Kumaravel as Johnson
• Ravi Prakash as Krish Gopalakrishnan, Nandu's father
• Sumesh S. Narayanan as Nandagopal ('Nandu')
• Aadhira Pandilakshmi as Theresa Johnson
• Santha Dhananjayan as Abhirami
• Sikkil Gurucharan as Vedaraman
• Director Marimuthu as Police Officer
• Srinivas Moorthy as Thupakki Thyagu
• Raj Kamal as Hari
• Spike John as Velu
• Krish Haran as Kumar
• Bala Singh as Gokul Raj

Guest appearances

• Sandy as Himself
• Unni Krishnan as Himself
• Srinivas as Himself
• Karthik as Himself
• Bombay Jayashri as Herself

Production

In March 2016, it was widely reported in the media that Rajiv Menon would begin work on his third directorial venture, after he had taken a sabbatical from the profession following the release of his previous film, Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000). Titled Sarvam Thaala Mayam, G. V. Prakash Kumar was signed on to play the lead role of a percussionist in the film, while A. R. Rahman was selected to compose the film's music. Pre-production work took place in mid-2016, and the team finalised Sai Pallavi to play the female lead role. Other actors including Nedumudi Venu and Cheenu Mohan were also approached to play key roles in the film, but production failed to take off in November 2016 as planned and the project was delayed.

In March 2017, Menon denied that the film was dropped and noted that a promotional photo shoot with Prakash Kumar was imminent. Prakash Kumar revealed that the story was set in two states and was inspired by incidents from the lives of real musicians. During the period, Prakash Kumar also took professional mridangam lessons from percussionist Umayalpuram Sivaraman to equip himself for the character. After further brief delays, the film was officially launched on 29 November 2017 and the shoot began thereafter. Sai Pallavi's unavailability meant that the team replaced her with Aparna Balamurali, after Menon was impressed with her performance in the Malayalam film, Maheshinte Prathikaaram (2016), and called her for a successful audition. An ensemble cast of Nedumudi Venu, Santha Dhananjayan, Vineeth, Kumaravel, Sumesh and Athira was also announced with the launch, while Ravi Yadav and Anthony were confirmed as the film's cinematographer and editor respectively. Actress Dhivyadharshini also later joined the film during the first schedule, which carried on until the end of 2017.

Music

Main article: Sarvam Thaala Mayam (soundtrack)

Awards and nomination

• MSF Nalli Film Award For Best Actor, G. V. Prakash Kumar
• Provoke Magazine Award For Best Actor, G. V. Prakash Kumar

External links

• Sarvam Thaala Mayam on IMDb
• Sarvam Thala Mayam Official Merchandise by Fully Filmy