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A supersonic tonic

Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Listeners’ choice Oscar winner Resul Pookutty

India’s Oscar hero Resul Pookutty has found that being famous can be hard work. Between appointments, Resul is famished, and so when he settles down for the chat at Delhi’s The Ashok, “I’ll have lunch — whatever that means,” he declares.Resul says he was a “hardcore vegetarian” for two years. “Then I toned down, because my wife had a hard time! I eat fish. Being from Kerala, if you don’t eat fish, it’s blasphemy!”

Resul opts for buttermilk while waiting for the thali. Buttermilk may quench his thirst, but there is no dousing the fire within the man for whom “life in general is finding a sense of rhythm.” Ever since he joined the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, for a PG course in film studies with a focus on sound, back in 1991, he has been exploring sound at levels ranging from the physical to the metaphysical. “Being a Physics graduate, sound was my obvious choice,” says Resul, “but I realised at the institute that sound was not what we thought it was.”

Film sound looks at various aspects, he explains: “The actors’ performance, the ambience, creating the soundscape — and, you’re using music.” Exposed to international film productions during his studies, he noticed “those were very close to life” whereas Indian commercial films were less so. “The visual aspect of a film is spatial — horizontal — whereas sound is spherical. It’s in your imagination. The visual element you are seeing, it’s almost tangible.”

Sound, he says, is “very interior. So I am constantly thinking how I can manipulate audience emotion.”

In the 14 years since he left the institute and came to work in the Mumbai film industry, Resul has also moved beyond the demands of film technology.

But even the so-called technician’s job is a work of art, he maintains. “We are mostly working on your subconscious mind.” When one finds a film is larger than life, he feels, one is really talking about the sound. “So I would say we are far more artists,” says the man who thinks it is vital to “push the envelope” and take risks. In the Oscar-winning “Slumdog Millionaire”, he says he was “constantly threatening” himself. In terms of appreciation, “Slumdog…” surpassed expectations, but Resul’s artistry has in the past gone virtually unnoticed. Take “Gandhi My Father”.

“It wasn’t a film about doing sound, it was about not doing a lot of things.” About the Mahatma, Resul says, “Simplicity was his motto.” Ditto for its sound designing. “When people don’t see these things, it makes you feel bad as an artist. That’s why ‘Gandhi My Father’ pricks me.”

As for simplicity, it suits Resul, who, despite his schedule, can cook himself a meal of sambar and rice. His favourite foods include kanji (rice porridge), payyaru (green gram) and chamandi — a typical Kerala village meal.

For now, the city beckons. Time for more appointments. Time to find new rhythms.

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