Voice effect
Rama Vaidyanathan
Posted online: Friday, October 14, 2005 at 0000 hours IST
It's the era of makeovers both in reel and real life. Mona Singh of Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin was the pioneer in attempting it on the small screen. However, it's not only appearance that matters, even the voice and dialogue delivery add a punch...
Abroad, the trend is towards voice makovers. Often, we come across a person, who impresses us on first looks, but as soon as we hear his or her weak, squeaky, grating, or harsh voice, our image takes a nosedive. It is a well-known fact that those with a loud, booming voice are able to hold the attention of the audience much better. People also subconsciously tend to listen and heed the words of someone with a strong voice. Jokes told at parties tend to depend a lot on the speaker's ability to modulate his or her voice. People who interview others for a job tend to get carried away by those who have a commanding voice, and this may well be the deciding factor between getting and not getting the job. Teachers in class need to sound strong, and any teacher whose voice is thin and ineffective tends to be ignored by the class.
Voice makeover involves using the correct breathing patterns, developing lung power, changing the pitch of the voice to suit the occasion, projecting one's voice when necessary, and adding punch and power to it. In addition, proper diction, taking the right pauses, adding the correct body language and facial features, are equally important. In the world of entertainment, be it television, radio or films, these things become crucial, and are often the deciding factor between success and failure. In many a film, the character goes from being a child to a youngster to a middle aged man to a grandfather. Very easily, his clothes, hair and face change with time. But not many actors (or directors, for that matter) are able to recognize and elicit the nuances that go into a character, especially where voice is concerned.
Some of the greats like Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Kamalahassan, and Shah Rukh Khan have learnt it themselves, perhaps by a long-winded process of trial and error. Lets take a brief look at some of the roles of these stars.
Take some of Amitabh's roles, for instance. In Deewar or Zanjeer, where he is predominantly an angry young man, his voice is harsh, grim, and often seething with fury. Comparatively, in Agneepath (where he is older, frustrated, street smart and uneducated) his voice is uncultured. Cut to Aakhri Raasta and one can clearly see the difference between the slow, measured speech of the old father, as compared to the brisk voicing of the young son. In Khuda Gawah his voice assumes all the characteristics of a large hearted, full of life Pathan, while in Baghban his voice suits his role, as an average middle class retired banker.
Shah Rukh Khan has been accused time and again by the media of acting and speaking like himself, in almost all his roles. But if one were to look at two of is recent films, Veer Zaara and Swades, there is a difference. In Veer Zaara, his voice initially assumes the military like quality of an Air Force officer, followed by that of a desperate lover. But the most surprising aspect of his role is the way he converts his voice into that of an old, tired and defeated prisoner, with the right amount of thinness, pauses and tremulousness. The viewer is completely convinced, first by his make up and secondly by his speech that here is an old prisoner, who has withdrawn into his own world, with no hope of getting out, or of seeing his beloved. In Swades where he plays an NRI trying to come to terms with himself, he sounds very sincere and believable. Gone is the usual SRK trademark voice and speech that we are used to.
Sanjeev Kumar always used to try and style his voice to suit his character. In Uljhan as the anguished police officer-husband, his initial joyous bubbly voice changes tenor to become grim and quiet. The fun filled voices that he used in Naukar or Manchali were in complete contrast to the low-pitched, grim, sorrowful voice (conveying the lost everything feeling and the revenge and hatred) of Thakur Baldev Singh in Sholay. In Nayi Din Nayi Raat, he managed to project some shades of differences, in the voices of the nine characters that he plays. Aandhi saw him using a mature voice.
Kamalahassan is almost a genius, when it comes to acting. Experimentation is his forte and his passion, and hence it comes as no surprise to hear his voice in Chachi 420 (where he alternates between his own voice and that of a sixty plus lady), or Appu Raja (distinctly different voices are used for the normal guy and the dwarf), or in the Tamil film Anbe Sivam, where he plays an old man with a scarred face and broken teeth brilliantly. Nayakan and Thevar Magan saw him employing tow different voices, one as an underworld don, and one as an educated youngster turned village chieftain. Kamal's only drawback however (and some feel this is one of the main reasons for his Hindi failures) is his poor Hindi diction. Correcting this would perhaps have taken him to greater heights.
When it comes to most other actors, they do modulate their voices, but very often the impact is lost. Abroad there are voice trainers and voice coaches attached to each and every film unit, and most stars too have their own personal voice trainers. Much like a dance director or a make up artist, these specialists study every role and scene, and then help the stars to change their voices in keeping with the roles. If one were to listen to Tom Hanks in Philadelphia as compared to Forrest Gump, or in the Terminal compared to The Polar Express, one cannot but wonder if these are one and the same individual. Such is his mastery, not only over his acting, but his voice exrpession as well. But this is not by chance; this has been learnt the hard way with plenty of coaching and training.
Indian cinema is lagging far behind in the finer aspects of voice styling and voice makeovers. Unfortunately, the problem often starts with a lack of awareness. If we wish to compete with the best, at the various film festivals and awards, both here and abroad, one has to take care of all aspects. Earlier, there were no dress designers, hair stylists, make up artists etc. The stars and the director were supposed to themselves take care of these things. But things changed, and today the list of crew members is enormous. As of now, styling and changing the voices of the actors, to suit the character and the situation, is also left to the individuals and to the directors. It is time that filmmakers employed voice makeover specialists or vocal coaches to help the actors change their voices with ease, in order to blend with the characters. The mark of a good performance rests on facial expressions and emotions, body language and voice. Though the first two are always in our focus, we often forget and take it for granted. This is a grave error, and needs to be attended to. After decades of experimenting, India films have managed to perfect the gross aspects of filmmaking. It's time to move on, to the finer ones.
(Speech Language Pathologist and Voice Consultant)
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