Sarvam Thaala Mayam

Sarvam Thaala Mayam (English: Omnipresence of Rhythm), also titled Madras Beats, is a 2019 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 solid comeback with a film that is relevant, entertaining, and inspirational in parts. Sarvam Thaala Mayam works fittingly both as a musical drama. The film released on 1 February 2019 and was received mostly to positive reviews.

Premise
Menon’s film is a musical drama where the worlds of a renowned mridangam player Vembu Iyer (Nedumudi Venu); an expert mridangam maker Johnson (Kumaravel); and the latter's son Peter Johnson (G. V. Prakash Kumar), a crazy Thalapathy Vijay fan, collide. The events that follow form the crux of the story.

Cast

 * G. V. Prakash Kumar as Peter Johnson
 * Aparna Balamurali as Sara
 * Nedumudi Venu as Vembhu Iyer/Syama Sastry (Telugu version)
 * Vineeth as Mani
 * Kumaravel as Johnson
 * Sumesh Narayanan as Nandagopal ('Nandu')
 * Dhivyadharshini as Anjana
 * Santha Dhananjayan as Abhirami
 * Aadhira Pandilakshmi as Theresa Johnson
 * Raviprakash as Krish Gopalakrishnan (Nandu's father)
 * G. Marimuthu as Police Officer
 * Bala Singh as Gokul Raj
 * Unni Krishnan as himself (cameo)
 * Srinivas as himself (cameo)
 * Karthik as himself (cameo)
 * Sikkil Gurucharan as Vedaraman (cameo)
 * Bombay Jayashri as herself (cameo)

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
The film album incorporates six feature songs all together, excluding instrumental tracks. The film's director Menon has also composed a song which Rahman has curated.

Development
Rahman began composing for the film in early 2016 and by May, it was revealed that two songs had already been completed. As the film was "music-based", Menon required all of the songs to be completed before production began and by November 2016, Rahman had finished composing nine songs for the film and composed parts of the background score. The film's songs have lyrics written by Madhan Karky, Arunraja Kamaraj and Na. Muthukumar, who worked in the film before his death in August 2016.

Track listing
The official track list of songs was released long before the audio release by A. R. Rahman, in his Twitter page, on 18 November 2018.

Telugu
All tracks were written by lyricist Rakendu Mouli, except "MaakElara Vichaaramu".

Sound Engineers

 * A R Rahman, Rasigan, A R Vengatesan
 * Mixed by - P. A. Deepak, T R Krishna Chetan, Karthik Sekaran, Jerry Vincent
 * Additional Programming - Santhosh Dhayanidhi
 * Mastered by - Suresh Perumal
 * MFiT mastered by - Suresh Perumal

Musicians

 * Guitar - Sunil Milner, Keba Jeremiah
 * Flute - Kamalaka
 * Kanjira Player - B Shree Sundarkumar
 * Sunshine Orchestra Conducted by VJ Srinivasamurthy
 * Musicians Coordinators - Noell James, TM Faizuddin, Abdul Haiyum
 * Musicians Fixer - R Samidurai    ￼￼

Background Score
￼A.R. Rahman used many different, unique instruments in this soundtrack. In A Journey of Peter, Peter encounters Musical Instruments Of North India,  Musical instruments of Rajasthan  &  Musical Instruments of North East. These musical instruments are part of the background score. Rahman & his ensemble Qutub-E-Kripa gave Indian Regionals music & Carnatic music. A.R. Rahman used a western African musical instrument called Kora for the film. It is a 21 string lute-bridge-harp extensively used in Africa.