Movie Review: Sarvam Thalamayam (Tamil)

Producer- Latha Menon

Director – Rajiv Menon

Star Cast- Nedumudi Venu, G.V Prakash Kumar,Aparna Balamurali, Kumaravel Divyadarshini, Vineeth  and Sumesh

Genre- Musical

Rating- ***1/2

Riveting Musical!

Jyothi Venkatesh

Rajiv Menon who is back after eighteen years as a director emerges a winner just on the basis of two solid characters —Vembu Iyer (Nedumudi Venu) and Peter Johnson (GV Prakash) in flesh and blood to narrate this beautiful story, with emphasis on Carnatic Music and the way the music reality shows manipulate the participants to up their TRPs these days! Vembu Iyer who represents the upper community of chaste Iyers is an old school Mridangam expert who is unable to adapt to the changes in the modern music scene, while  Peter Johnson who is a lower caste Christian wants to enter the world of Carnatic music which is being ruled by the upper-class community. Peter Johnson is a mridangam maker’s son, who aspires to learn the instrument from a maestro and become a mridangam player, but has to cross social and personal barriers to reach his goal. The film sets out to drive home the subtle message musically that music is omnipresent—Sarvam Thaala Mayam!

The romance between Peter and Sarah (Aparna Balamurali), despite its progressive approach towards pre-marital sex, looks too contrived and illogical and also the screenplay tends to limp mid-way. Performance- wise, while Nedumudi Venu shines as the disciplinarian Vembu Iyer, Peter lends his role a lot of credibility as the fanatic Vijay fan who makes his transition from being a rebel to a top notch mridangam player with effortless ease. The USP of the film is of course Ravi Yadav’s brilliant cinematography as well as AR Raman’s minimalist score and the sync sound gives the film a touch of intimacy. It may be remembered that the duo of Rajiv Menon and A R Rahman had earlier delivered two evergreen soundtracks in Minsara Kanavu (1997) and Kandukondain Kandukondain (2002). Rahman has delivered an eclectic blend of Carnatic, folk, and classical, melodious and catchy tracks headlined by popular singers like Chinmayi, Bombay Jayashree and Sriram Parthasarathy. Rajiv Menon has tackled a rather touchy subject with a fair amount of sensibility.

To sum up, Sarvam Thaala Mayam is a touching, emotional, hard hitting contemporary musical which is riveting to the core.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News,  Sarvam Thalamayam, Movie Review, Nedumudi Venu, G.V Prakash Kumar,Aparna Balamurali, Kumaravel Divyadarshini, Vineeth  and Sumesh