North Chennai percussionist takes ‘satti melam‘ to the world stage

R Sarath Kumar's journey from playing satti melam at graveyards to acclaimed percussionist in Tamil films and international stages.

The graveyard near his home in Otteri was a playground for R Sarath Kumar during his boyhood. It was there that he first heard the satti melam. The beats of the percussion instrument that is played during funerary rites, became a constant in his life. “The sound stirred something in me,” recalls the 30-year-old. “It made me dance and forget all else.”

Sarath learnt to play the instrument, which eventually won him acclaim. He has played for several Tamil films, at events organised by director Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Cultural Centre, and is also the percussionist in rapper and lyricist Arivu’s band The Ambassa. The journey however, has not been easy.

Learning to play an instrument associated with death came with challenges. “My guru R Rajendran who worked at the Otteri crematorium, refused to teach me since he felt my family wouldn’t approve of it,” he says. Sarath, whose father is a banner artist, was 13 then. “But I crafted my own instrument with metal plates and jigna paper that was used to decorate the dead, and played at burial sites,” he says.

Rajendran, who noticed that the boy just would not give up, took him in.

Satti melam, unlike the more popular and well-documented instruments, does not have notations. To play it, Sarath had to keenly observe his teacher. Lessons took place at the crematorium, and this meant skipping school, for which Sarath’s parents severely censured him. “But to me, nothing else mattered more than music,” he says.

It took him a year to master the instrument and after around six years of playing it, he joined a local band that performed at weddings. Sarath was also drawn to the dholak, another percussion instrument which he learned to play from ‘Dholak’ Jagan, a popular musician in the city. “He suggested that I travel with him for some time to understand the instrument,” says Sarath.

Sarath accompanied Jagan to funerals at which he would play from 10pm to 4am. Surrounded by heightened emotions, rituals, and people, Sarath, who was then in his teens, gradually learned to focus on the instrument. He enjoyed the process, but not the experiences that came with it.