Sarvam Thaala Mayam Review: A Movie With Entertainment Quotient & Social Message!

After close to 2 decades, one of the most talented and celebrated filmmaker, Rajiv Menon is back into direction. Sarvam Thaala Mayam, had always been in the bucket list of movie lovers ever since the kick-start happened and now, the flick has hit theatres.

Sarvam Thaala Mayam is about a young aspiring musician, Peter (GV Prakash), trying to make it big in the music field unlike his father, Johnson (Kumaravel). Johnson makes Mridangam for living but doesn’t play one despite the fact that he knows the art. The dominance of the higher caste over the lower/dalit caste creates literally no opportunity for Johnson and the same will be experienced by Peter.

Peter’s parents, much similar to any lower middle class family, wants their son to earn a good living through focused education and not via the passion. But a determined Peter is hell bent of becoming a musician after being inspired from Vembu Iyer (Nedumuni Venu). Though he faces a lot of hurdles, pain and humiliation, Peter approaches Vembu and the latter trains the former without being caste-driven.

Peter forgoes his non-veg and alcohol habits to master the art and in sometime, scales to greater heights. Situation forces him to move away from Vembu Iyer and embark on the journey of round trip across regions for music shows.

It’s in the second half where it is shown that no matter the achievements you carry and the talent you possess, the oppression by higher caste on lower caste still exists and doesn’t seem to be a possibility to be curtailed.

How does the movie wind up with the open thread in the second half? Carrying such a strong message, will the director convey a formidable climax through the protagonist?

With a brief run-time of 131 Minutes, Sarvam Thaala Mayam is definitely a great movie which carries both entertainment quotient and a social message. However, Rajiv’s taking and execution in the first half which stamps his conviction kind of get dented a bit in the second half when he seems to be focused more on the caste issue than the subject.

Nonetheless, nothing takes away from the movie or from the technical team. Anthony’s editing is one of the highlights while cinematography by Ravi Yadav not only showcases the technician’s capability, but also proves that Rajiv Menon has involved partially as a cinematographer as well.

AR Rahaman’s music and background score is definitely the major takeaway of the flick. Saint Tyagaraja’s keerthanas have been used very well in the movie.

This can be deemed as GV Prakash’s career best work as most of his previous works were not of a substantial level. This brings out the best of talent in him and he has rendered total justice to his role.

Aparna Balamurali, Kumaravel, Vineeth and others have played their parts respectively very well while the highly talented Nedumuni Venu is very good in his role.

Final Verdict

A terrific movie which speaks volumes by itself. If not for the caste segment in the second half,which kind of dampens the first half’s tempo, the movie would have been perfect. Go for it.