Official Trailer:

Director follows the sports template, how an underdog breaks into the chosen field working against the odds with the help of a coach. Here we have an aspiring youth, Peter Johnson, from a family of mridangam makers, who wants to become a mridangam artist. Peter is not aware of the caste barriers; how Carnatic music has been dominated by Brahmins and other castes are not easily allowed in, since both learning and performance are controlled by Brahmins. Movie is based on one simple question: why don’t people who make mridangam play it, why we haven’t seen anyone from the community that makes the mridangam? Great plot, and Rajiv Menon does touch upon multiple problems that exist in the music world, how music world is still divided based on caste, entry barriers, male / female politics, other castes being restricted to government colleges of music and can only aspire to be teachers in music schools and colleges, they will never get to give a concert in music academy. But he keeps them subtle rather than going for the kill. While the movie does say if you have the talent and dedication you can break the barrier, question remains is winning a reality show same as breaking the cultural barrier in music? May not be. But it could be also that Rajiv Menon is suggesting build parallel platforms to unite various music art forms, provide avenues for talent from across communities rather than wait for barriers to come down in current platform.

What works for the movie is Rajiv Menon’s balanced treatment – how Vembu Iyer is different from the rest of the lot; Vembu Iyer does have his prejudices, like he will not play for female vocalists, but he takes in Peter as his student admiring his talent and dedication; caste discrimination is worse in villages than in cities; don’t need to rely on one Guru and whole world is full of Gurus; contrasting music processions in city (privileged caste) and village (oppressed caste). Loved the segment where Peter travels around India getting to know various percussion instruments. Liked the way he uses gate as metaphor for the entry barrier. Strong contributions come from Nedumudi Venu as Vembu Iyer, Kumaravel as Peter’s father and ARR’s music. Rest of the cast do their justice with the role.

Johnson, Peter’s father, role is based on real life mridangam maker Tanjore SA Johnson. I didn’t know till I watched the movie that we need cow’s skin, goat skin and buffalo skin to make the mridangam, and all from female of the species after it has delivered. And the skin has to be changed every three months, if you are a concert player. As Rajiv Menon puts it, it’s a warm relationship between the maker and the player, one of trust and one that involves continuous meetings. But, it is not one of equals. They belong to different social spheres. It is interesting that the community that considers cow as divine has to run its fingers on its skin to produce the beautiful sound. It would be highly incorrect to single out Carnatic music when we talk about barriers. Access barriers are there in every other field. Point the movie is making is need for inclusiveness and keeping the doors open.