Sarvam Thaala Mayam (2019)

[*** 1/2 stars/ 5 ] 

If you are a passionate, aspiring musician or music lover, you will identify with the struggles of the short-tempered but extremely talented musician Peter Johnson (G.V. Prakash Kumar). 

Peter is a young lower middle-class mridangam* maker's son, a aimless loafer who bunks an important college exam to make it for a favourite movie star's new release, chases a pretty nurse (Aparna Balamurali), drinks and gets into random street fights.

(*percussion instrument, usually played as an ally to the vocals in carnatic music)   

Rhythm of life 
Life changes for Peter when he chances on mridangam legend Vembhu Iyer (Nedumudi Venu) at a concert and requests the tradition-bound maestro to teach him. The rest of the movie is about Peter's against the tide struggle to beat caste-based hurdles, jealousy, while on a quest to find himself. 

Director Rajiv Menon and music director A.R. Rahman (incidentally G.V. Prakash's uncle) lift a predictable underdog story to a telling dialogue on inclusiveness, how music ('isaii' in Tamil) is for all.

Exceptional music, performances 
Veteran actor Nedumudi Venu is particularly exceptional as the unbending traditionalist, as is Vineeth, infusing life into a predictable negative shade. 

G.V. Prakash is good, if not exceptional as Peter, as is Aparna. Actors Kumaravel and Aadhira Pandilakshmi as Peter's parents are probably the most believable characters here.  

Though Menon plays on familiar beats and cliches that weigh down the energetic narration, his love and keen understanding of music is astounding. The visuals, art direction are top grade, and there are many high points. I particularly love the climatic reality show face-off and the concluding student-teacher scene. 

Sarvam Thaala Mayam (Rhythm is everywhere) is a uplifting musical drama that deserves a larger audience. You needn't know Tamil to appreciate the superb Indian classical-based A.R. Rahman soundtrack.

Recommended
If you liked Sarvam Thaala Mayam, watch Rajiv Menon's Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000), an entertaining Tamil romantic drama starring Aishwarya Rai, Tabu, Mammootty and Ajith, inspired by Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, embedded with amazing A.R. Rahman 'isaii.'

Afterword
Incidentally, Sargam (1992) is a good Malayalam musical drama on carnatic music starring two actors from the Sarvam Thaala Mayam cast, a young Vineeth as a gifted teenage singer,  Nedumudi Venu as his strict music teaching father and a scene-stealing Manoj  K. Jayan as the unpredictable, fragile friend.  

Malang (2020)

[** stars / *****] 

Director Mohit "Aashiqui 2" Suri's Malang (Vagrant) could also be titled Drugs, Love, Crime & Revenge in Goa (Filmy Style). 

Two "free" wanderers, Advait (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Sara (Disha Patani) fall for each other with zero chemistry and non-existent, woefully absent acting skills in Goa over drugs, parties, more drugs, breaking into abandoned homes (nobody notices the house breaking, Goa is that tourist friendly?!), bikinis and water sports. 

Then a tragedy involving volatile cop Michael Rodriguez (Kunal Khemu) puts an end to the vacation. Meanwhile, Anjaney Agashe (Anil Kapoor), another cop, loses it to drugs and encounter killings over his killed-in-crossfire daughter. 

When your friend has one too many tequila shots in Goa...

Lover ka badla (revenge)!
A more convincing Roy Kapur gets into revenge-crazy, six-pack, back-from-prison killing machine mode and keeps killing off cops left and right, even as Michael and Anjaney close in on him. Malang is a snore until the final ten minutes, some plot elements are justified, by then its too little, too late. 

Quick! Call the Rapid Action Deodorant Squad!

Why Malang sucks? 
Advait and Sara never seem real, neither as wanderers or later. Their scenes are a headache inducing drag. The first half suffers from the non-existent vibe and poor dialogues. Where is the money coming for the extended Goa vacation is a genetic Hindi film jannjat (irritation). 

Goa as a forbidding, dark, drug-infused could have worked, but the proceedings are too dull and unbelievable for any conviction to set in. 

Malang review 
Kunal Khemu as Michael Rodriguez needed more layers in what could have been a fascinating study of masculine pride, but the makers don't get there. Khemu's undeniably superb talent is wasted here. There are bright ideas, like the climax, the devastated cop subplot, but nothing sticks. 

Only the amazing Anil Kapoor and the beautiful songs, without any lame remixes, believe it or not, (applause for composers - Mithoon, Ankit Tiwari, Ved Sharma, Azim Azhar and The Fusion Project) make Malang, the rest is like a wave of average writing, acting and directing crashing into a million pieces against the rocks of a Goa beach.  

The Truman Show (1998)

[**** stars / *****] 

If you were to realize that you live in a pretentious world where nothing is real, what would you do? 

'Impending Doom' vibes 
In an age where staring randomly, unblinkingly for long hours at bright screens is a global pastime, The Truman Show still scores sky-high in terms of movie relevance. 

The Truman Show story 
Thirty-something Truman leads a seemingly perfect life working as an insurance agent with his wife and town community. 

It starts with a random studio lighting equipment falling from the sky. Then his long-dead father suddenly appears before him and disappears. Slowly but surely Truman begins to realize that something is amiss.   

  
The truth seeker
The thing is, everybody around him and millions of viewers around the world but Truman know that he is the main star of the world's largest running TV show. 

This first-of-a-kind TV show documents Truman's life 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with an assortment of actors and induced drama.   

Will Truman realize that he is part of a made-up world and seek to escape it? Watch this fantastic, uplifting comedy-drama to know what happens. 

The Truman Show is easily the best movie Jim Carrey has starred in, at the time of writing.