The graveyard close to his house in Otteri was a playground for R Sarath Kumar throughout his boyhood. It was there that he first heard the satti melam. The beats of the percussion instrument that’s performed throughout funerary rites, turned a continuing in his life. “The sound stirred one thing in me,” remembers the 30-year-old. “It made me dance and overlook all else.”

Sarath learnt to play the instrument, which finally gained him acclaim. He has performed for a number of Tamil movies, at occasions organised by director Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Cultural Centre, and can also be the percussionist in rapper and lyricist Arivu’s band The Ambassa. The journey nevertheless, has not been straightforward.

Studying to play an instrument related to dying got here with challenges. “My guru R Rajendran who labored on the Otteri crematorium, refused to show me since he felt my household wouldn’t approve of it,” he says. Sarath, whose father is a banner artist, was 13 then. “However I crafted my very own instrument with steel plates and jigna paper that was used to embellish the lifeless, and performed at burial websites,” he says.

Rajendran, who seen that the boy simply wouldn’t hand over, took him in.

Satti melam, in contrast to the extra common and well-documented devices, doesn’t have notations. To play it, Sarath needed to keenly observe his trainer. Classes happened on the crematorium, and this meant skipping college, for which Sarath’s mother and father severely censured him. “However to me, nothing else mattered greater than music,” he says.

Sarath Kumar with the percussion devices he performs
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Particular association

It took him a yr to grasp the instrument and after round six years of enjoying it, he joined an area band that carried out at weddings. Sarath was additionally drawn to the dholak, one other percussion instrument which he realized to play from ‘Dholak’ Jagan, a well-liked musician within the metropolis. “He recommended that I journey with him for a while to grasp the instrument,” says Sarath.

Sarath accompanied Jagan to funerals at which he would play from 10pm to 4am. Surrounded by heightened feelings, rituals, and folks, Sarath, who was then in his teenagers, progressively realized to deal with the instrument. He loved the method, however not the experiences that got here with it.

“An instrument related to dying is taken into account taboo, and this displays on the artistes enjoying it,” he says, recalling situations of individuals asking him to take away his instrument from their doorstep if he positioned it there whereas he waited. “Caste-based discrimination is a given,” he provides, “Individuals have refused to supply me water after a efficiency, and on one event, an individual supplied me water of their lavatory mug.”

However Sarath caught to his artwork. “There’s a sure energy within the tone of the melam, that I preserve going again to,” he says. Sarath additionally wished to show that in music, there is no such thing as a disparity between one instrument and one other. “The satti melam is not any completely different from the tavil, mridangam, and tabla. It too has animal disguise, just like the mridangam,” he factors out. “However the individuals who play it, are stigmatised.” He has taught himself to play 67 percussion devices, together with raja melam, parai, kanjira, and udukkai.

One morning in 2015, Sarath obtained a name from a movie firm. “I used to be supplied the prospect to play rhythms for the music ‘Moda Moda’ from the movie Kanchana 2,” he says, including that extra such alternatives adopted. Sarath has carried out for songs in movies equivalent to Pa Ranjith’s Madras, Sarpatta Parambarai, Bigil, and the current Blue Star. He has additionally carried out for Coke Studio Tamil’s songs equivalent to ‘Sagavaasi’ that includes Arivu and Khatija Rahman and ‘Rora-a Yethu’ that includes Vijay Sethupathi, Sean Roldan and Arunraja Kamaraj.

He additionally acquired to carry out at Santa Cruz within the US final yr, as a part of The Ambassa’s tour. “That was my first time abroad; we carried out for over 3,800 folks,” he says. Sarath continues to carry out at occasions, and is now busy enjoying for election campaigns. He is aware of that individuals have a look at him in a different way now. “I used to be offended for the longest time however didn’t present it. My work is the reply to what I went via.”