Thursday, December 17, 2020

Sarvam Thaala Mayam (Rhythm is Everywhere)

 


A mridangam maker's son, who aspires to learn the instrument from a maestro and become a mridangam player, has to cross social and personal barriers to reach his goal.

This is the tale of a young man struggling to overcome the hurdles of low caste and shallowness (and possibly his Christianity if I read some of the derogatory comments from the villain correctly) to learn classical Indian drum playing from a master artist. 

 The young star was good and I especially enjoyed his journey to learn the rhythm of world in the second half. The final competition on reality TV was a lot of fun. I loved the call and response with the audience. I was also impressed with the effect of the mastery of the mridangam. Who knew such a simple looking instrument could be such a versatile instrument?

I'm always interested when Indian films feature classical music because it is so very different from anything we in the West would identify as classical. I first came across this in Raazi where the young husband and wife bonded over classical Indian records. I really liked the way that the contrast between progress and mastery, discovery and command were displayed through the guru and the student. This was greatly aided by the fact that the master was depicted by an Indian master actor (think Jack Nicholson fame here) and the student by an accomplished musician (who also is a good actor).

We all know the familiar beats of such a story but this movie hit them so well and enjoyably that this was a real crowd pleaser for our family. It's an engaging movie that an adventurous American viewer would like.  

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

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