Sarvam Thaala Mayam () is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language musical drama film written and directed by Rajiv Menon. The film stars G. V. Prakash Kumar and Aparna Balamurali, with a supporting cast including Nedumudi Venu, Vineeth, Kumaravel, Santha Dhananjayan, and Dhivyadharshini. The film has music composed by A. R. Rahman, cinematography by Ravi Yadav, and editing by Anthony.
Returning to direction after 19 years, Menon makes a comeback with a film that is relevant, entertaining, and inspirational in parts. The film released on 1 February 2019. The film was a box office success.
Plot
This is a story about a famous mridangam player named Vembu Iyer and his student Peter Johnson, son of an expert mridangam maker named Johnson and a crazy Vijay fan, collide.
Earlier Peter is a care-free brat who neither has any interest in his father's mridangam making business nor in his own career. He starts wooing a nurse called Saara who keeps some distance from him due to his approach. Then one day, on his father's insistence he goes to deliver mridangam to Vembu Iyer's concert where he is allowed to watch his program. After observing Iyer's concert, Peter starts admiring him and decides to join as a student to learn mridangam from him.
After observing Peter, Iyer understands that he has talent but rejects him due to his lack of discipline and consistency. To prove Iyer wrong, Peter tries hard to change himself which constoned by his mother and worried about his future. Finally Iyer allows Peter as his student.
Peter is mistreated by Iyer's assistant Mani because of his lower caste. This is noticed by Iyer, who warns Mani to be good with his students. Mani confesses his dissatisfaction over Iyer, saying he did not support his career as a mridangam player and used him. This angers Iyer, who sacks him from the job in front of Peter, so Mani swears revenge on Iyer and Peter for his humiliation.
Peter becomes good friends with Nandagopal 'Nandu', a NRI and a Harvard University PhD dropout who came to learn mridangam from Iyer. Meanwhile, Mani joins as a judge in a classical music instrument reality show called 'Sangeetha Samrat' with the help of his younger sister Anjana who is a crooked socialite and works as a VJ. Peter is very passionate about the beats of mridangam and becomes one of the favourite students of Iyer. Meanwhile, Saara realizes her love for Peter and they start dating.
Anjana sets a trap to humiliate Iyer. She invites Nandu to perform on her reality show and makes him believe that it was telecasted only in the USA. Nandu comes along with Peter, who consistently warns him to not perform without their teacher's permission. After knowing that it was a trap to humiliate them, Nandu leaves the place without any warning to Peter. Without knowing the facts, Peter enters the studio to find Nandu, but he is focused on "live". Then with no option left, Peter gets ready to play mridangam which gets severely humiliated by Mani and Anjana, making him seem useless and directly criticize Iyer. After learning of this, Iyer questions Peter on why he went to perform on the stage. Peter takes the blame on himself to save Nandu. The angered Iyer sends Peter away saying that it is a real humiliation for his musical knowledge for believing in such a useless student.
Later at Nandu's home, Nandu blames Peter for his mistakes and Peter challenges Nandu saying that he will be overpowered by him one day. After these events, Peter became depressed and started taking drugs, which worries his parents. This is noticed by Saara who takes him to her home. Later she makes him realise that the music is everywhere and built in nature and encourages him to explore the world to learn Thaalam (beats). Inspired by these words, Peter starts a journey on his own way to learn different types of beat instruments.
Meanwhile, the Sangeetha Samrat show becomes successful after completion of 2 successful seasons and all of Iyer's students including Nandu are fascinated over the popularity and leave him. Finally Iyer understands that he needs to mend his ways according to the world or else he cannot transfer his musical knowledge to the further generations. He realizes that Peter is his heir for his knowledge of music and calls him back.