Sound affair with cinema

SYNC SOUND and a sound designer? Sounds unusual... and arouses one's curiosity. How does one `design' sound? And what is it about Nakul Kamte's work that makes him a bit different from the other sound engineers who have quietly contributed their mite to the Indian film industry?

Nakul Kamte looks every bit the ad man that he basically is. We settle down for a tete-a-tete on his specialised field - sync sound and mixing, and also on his forthcoming project, Aamir Khan's period drama, ``Lagaan.''

``With sync sound, you actually pick up the dialogue on location using a boom (a long powerful mike) or lapel mikes. That means not much dubbing is required.'' This technique was prevalent during the nascent stages of cinema but soon when shooting moved out of the controlled environment of studios to locations, dubbing took over.

``Of course, it is still practised in Hollywood, and some of our film-makers like Shyam Benegal continue make use of it. But as far as commercial films went, dubbing was the buzzword. Also till recently, theatres were equipped with outdated sound systems and the popular belief was that natural sound (read sync sound) may not reproduce well, especially in the commercial context,'' says Nakul. ``I believe that sound should take you into a film, not overpower it. This tends to happen with dubbing,'' adds the sound engineer.

Mahesh Mathai's ``Bhopal Express'' was the turning point in Nakul's life. ``I've known Mahesh since our ad days. He was toying with the idea of making a film and decided to use sync sound. We were discussing ``Bhopal Express,'' when he suddenly looked at me and said `You're on.' I was surprised.'' And Nakul Kamte, who had a flourishing career in advertising, changed tack.

``I was not prepared for this. The equipment was very expensive (the entire set could cost Rs. 10 crore) and had to be imported.'' Things worked out with Mahesh's help and ``Bhopal Express'' happened. ``Though the equipment is expensive, in the long run, it helps cut costs,'' he says.

Nakul enjoys what he is doing. His love for cinema comes through when he discusses several aspects, especially films such as ``Bladerunner'', ``Godfather'' ``Iruvar'' or even ``The Last Temptation of Christ'' (``The background score was awesome'') . Music is another love of his life (he was a member of a band, Crosswinds), of course, ``besides my wife and three kids''.

Sync sound banks heavily on team work... between the director, cinematographer (Anil Mehta in the case of ``Lagaan''), actors and the sound designer. ``The camera position depends quite a bit on where the mike is placed. It is basically a give-and-take situation. On the sets, it's no longer `Lights, Camera, Action'... it becomes `Lights, Camera, Sound, Action'!''

This means the work for the artistes increases. ``They have to make a lot of adjustments when it comes to dialogue delivery. But the spontaneity and the emotions are captured much better than when dubbed six months later.''

Another important aspect is the location itself. ``While rehearsing for the last scene in `Bhopal Express', Mahesh took me to Platform 9 of the Hyderabad station, which is relatively quiet and less crowded. But on the actual day of shooting, for some reason, we had to shoot on Platform 1. Imagine my shock. The place was so noisy and over- crowded. But it was challenging!,'' says Nakul. ``Even for ``Lagaan'', we had quite a tough time. We were shooting in Bhuj, and there was an Air Force base nearby. Every half hour, an aircraft would zoom across the sky. (we learnt later that the personnel wanted to watch the shooting, and to get our attention, they would fly the aircraft!) Also the wind velocity was very high, and trying to catch the voices was quite a trying experience.''

When you ask Nakul about Aamir Khan, his eyes light up. ``He is a thorough professional and a perfectionist, and above all, a humble guy. It was a pleasure working with him.'' He is also all praise for the young director, Ashutosh Gowrikar.

Nakul has one more ``interesting'' project in hand - Farhan Akhtar's ``Dil Chhatha Hai''. His parting shot is ``You can have a bad movie with good sound, but you can't have a good movie with bad sound!'' Are the tech-savvy directors of the South listening?

SAVITHA PADMANABHAN

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