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By:
JBR
"You ain't heard nothing yet"
These were the first ever words spoken in a movie, by the actor Al Jolson in Warner Brothers' 'The Jazz Singer.' Just 4 years after that, a Tamil film spoke breaking the silence. The first film was H M Reddy's 'Kalidas.' So, this is the context that completes the 75 year of Talkie Tamil films.
This is the right time to evaluate the growth of Tamil cinema, particularly the audio part.
In the times of silent movies, it is the 'talkies' who gave their voice. Standing by the side of the screen they used to tell the story, the conversations and the background of the story.
This was how the global trend was and the Tamil films just followed that trend. In 1926, Warner Brothers Studio of Hollywood introduced the Vitaphone system. In this method, large discs were recorded with the audio and played to synchronise with the conversations in the film. During the shooting of the film, both conversations and music were recorded with the help of the mike. The first Tamil film 'Kalidas' adopted this system.
In 1931, the Vitaphone method was given up. In that year, L D Forrest, an American, invented 'Movietone,' a method of recording the audio directly on the film.
The next improvement on 'Movietone' was DAT technology. This technology enabled fine recording of audio in eight tracks.
Then DAT gave way to 2DAT. There are 16 tracks in 2DAT. This technology helped recording of fine audio for the movies. Soon movies will start using Computerised Unlimited Tracks technology. This will raise the refinement in audio recording to the ultimate. Along with it, the quality of audio has attained its high point.
From being mono, the sound quality has been raised through Dolby and DTS. The base frequency is what makes the difference between mono and Dolby and DTS. In the DTS sound system, three CDs are recorded with the audio and are made to run with the film. The projector will read the code in the CD and the system will start working.
The first film to have used the Dolby system was Kamal Hassan's 'Kurudhipunal'. Similarly the first Indian film to have adopted DTS system was Abavanan's 'Karuppu Roja'. These are just two examples to show the advancements and accomplishments of Tamil films in Indian cinema.
After DTS, SBBS is a high tech advancement which within a few years of being introduced in Hollywood, will find its way into Tamil cinema too.
In the invention of L D Forrest, Movietone helped record the sound on the edge of the film. In the recently introduced Super 35 mm technology, sound will be recorded on the image itself.
This way, not only the image will have super clarity, but the sound too would be crystal clear. Selvaraghavan's 'Pudupettai' and Kamal's 'Vettaiyadu Vilayadu' will be adopting this Super 35mm technology.
A R Rahman does the recording in his own studio for his Hollywood film assignments. There are quite a few such studios in Tamilnadu. The answer to a question if the Tamil cinema stories are anyway comparable to the international films will be forthcoming very hesitantly. But in sound technology, Tamil films are matching the global trend.
The filmdom that gave five Chief Ministers, more than 5500 films and countless actors…In its achievement of 75 years, we can certainly add 'voice' to it.
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-19.12.2005
