The Underrated Series - H Sridhar(Master of Sound Mixing and Audiography) iView Author: *SRIDHAR MAYUR *(Hyderabad, India)
Email: *With Held* <http://passionforcinema.com/about/#iview> *" The Underrated Series - H Sridhar(Master of Sound Mixing and Audiography)" * First my condolences to the family of H Sridhar. He passed away on 01 Dec'08 due to cardiac arrest. This article is a tribute to the master of sound mixing and audiography. He engineered the correct sound equilibrium to the songs and hence made sound eloquent. His contribution and work in Audiography is commendable and has set standards which are unmatched. H. Sridhar, (Sridhar Hariharan/H.Padmanabh) was a sound engineer famous for his works which garnered acclaim across the nation and won him pretigious awards for his incredible work. He had pioneered the use of Digital Sound for Indian films in the DTS format. He was the Chief Audio Engineer at Media Artists(India's premier and most sought after studio for both album recordings and audio post-production for film and video). He was a mathematics graduate, with keen interest in electronics and formal music training, he started a professional sound engineering career in 1988. Among Sridhar's many professional credits was the fact that he engineered all songs and background scores for the renowned music director A R Rahman. On most of A.R Rahman's audio covers, the top billing among technicians would be H.Sridhar and his Media Artists. It was Mani Ratnam who introduced him to A R Rahman and together the duo has produced outstanding music. Take a look at some of their best of picks - Roja, Gentleman, Kadhalan, Thiruda Thiruda, Bombay, Duet, Mahanadi, Rangeela, Kuruthippunnal, Muthu, Indian, Minsaara Kanavu and Iruvar. Most of these were recorded in Panchathan Recording Inn (Rahman's own recording studio ), Madras. He had engineered over 200 films and worked closely with Manirathnam, Ram Gopal Varma, Ashutosh Gowarikar, K Balachander, Shankar, Kamal Haasan, etc. He also engineered and mixed albums for international artists. Some* of his Hindi film works(apart from the ones mentioned above) include Satya (1998), Dil Se (1998), Pukar (2000), Lagaan(2001), Dil Chahta Hai (2001) (final mixing) , Saathiya (2002), Meenaxi: Tale of 3 Cities (2004), Water (2005), Guru (2007), Critically Acclaimed - Dharam (2007) , Cheeni Kum (2007) and Jodhaa Akbar (2008). Sridhar was awarded the The National Award for Best Audiography four times, the films are: 1. Mahanadi(Tamil) in 1994 2. Dil Se (1999) 3. Lagaan (2001) 4. Kannathil Muththamittal(Tamil) in 2003 The Music for Mahanadi was composed by the 'meastro' Ilayaraja amd for the other films it was A R Rahman. Now, for a peek into the genius.Till now you've been listening to the songs like a A R Rahman song, now get a little in-depth and check out the mixing and the overlapping of sounds and instrumentation in the songs. Give your ears a different angle…Go for it… *1. Roja - Pudhu vellai mazhai* *2. Alaipayuthey - Sakhiye Snehidiye(The Original 'Saathiya')* * 3. Rang De Basanti - Ru Ba Ru* Whenever I listen to this song…something happens…I feel very emotional….something very close-to kinda feeling creeps in(this is just my bit) *4. Jodha Akbaar - Khwaja Mere Khwaja* Thats H Sridhar!! Immortal, just like his songs!! Hope when you listen to some of these songs in future, you will think of H Sridhar….and his work…. Thanks and Regards Sridhar Mayur http://passionforcinema.com/the-underrated-series-h-sridharmaster-of-sound-mixing-and-audiography/ -- regards, Vithur
