LOST RHYTHMS

role in pushing the narrative. Master percussionist Sivamani shoulders the job of composing the lm's tunes, and he has lined up a star-studded playback cast that includes Amitabh Bachchan and Sonu Nigam. The nale performance that Guddu and group put up at the contest is vintage Sivamani, blending percussion magni cence with interesting vocal quirks.

In a lm that, in the best of sequences, is mediocre in terms of writing and direction, music could have been a high point. Sadly for Sivamani, the lacklustre storytelling affects the use of songs too.

There's a standard picture of struggle for Guddu at home, too. He lives with an alcoholic father (Amitriyaan); his mother walked out when he was little. When the principal of a local music school gets the band of urchins to enter a high-pro le music contest, it is an opportunity for Guddu and the group to change their lives forever and for the better.

Director Shiv Hare and co-writer Aadesh Rathi have tried Slumdog Millionaire vibes in their screenplay, to de ne Guddu's happy-go-lucky street life that comes with the expected quota of exuberance and angst. Unfortunately, Hare lacks Danny Boyle's storytelling skills. Also, too many subplots are stuffed into the narrative, which only makes the lm incoherent.

The lm is presented by AR Rahman who incidentally had won his two Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire Generically, Atkan Chatkan is a musical drama, so music plays a vital

The young band of street-side musical geniuses is adequately acted out by Lydian Nadhaswaram and his fellow child artistes (Yash Rane, Sachin Chaudhary, Tamanna Dipak, Ayesha Vindhara), though a lot of hamming goes on in the name emoting by some of the grown-up cast members.

Goes without saying, it does not help a lm that struggles to nds its rhythm all along.

Vinayak Chakravorty

September 2020 by minaL khona

Minal Khona has been reading tarot cards for the last two decades. She uses her intuition and connect with the cards mostly to help people.