Oscar award-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty has been nominated along with fellow sound designer Vijay Kumar for the prestigious 72nd Golden Reel Awards for their compelling work in one of Malayalam cinema's epic films, 'Aadujeevitham'
Resul Pookutty
The fruits of Blessy’s passion project 'Aadujeevitham (The Goat Life)' keep coming even after 10 months of its theatrical release. The film starring Prithviraj Sukumaran in the titular role was in the making for over a decade. Earlier this month, Oscar award-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty was nominated along with fellow sound designer Vijay Kumar for the prestigious 72nd Golden Reel Awards for their compelling work in one of Malayalam cinema's epic films, 'Aadujeevitham'.
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“I was jumping in the flight when I got to know because getting a nomination is not an easy task. You are competing with the best in the world especially on feature films,” says Pookutty on a call with mid-day.com.
'Aadujeevitham' is based on the real-life story of Kerala man Najeem who becomes a victim of slavery in the deserts of a Middle-Eastern country where he reaches with the promise of a job. "Every survival story has a spiritual element. This nomination is a reassurance that our thinking was global, the film and its idea and the way we put it out," says Pookutty.
Resul Pookutty on the challenges of Aadujeevitham music
Talking about the music of the film that was composed by AR Rahman, Pookutty said, “The music transcends from dramatic to sense of spirituality as the characters goes from Kerala to the Middle East as he battles a personal war of survival in the desert.”
The film narrates the struggles of Najeem in the desert surrounded by animals and ruthless masters. With no end in sight to his suffering, the music of the film reflects his hope to someday see his family which keeps him alive. “Many people came out of the theatres and said they felt thirsty. For me, that is the biggest success. With sound and music, we have tried to make the desert a character in the second half. For us that is the ultimate thing; to make the audience feel what the characters are feeling. In the film we have used the narrative aspect of sound in the best possible way, whether it is by making the animals talk or creating an emotion. The camel which scares Najeem in the beginning communicates to him by grunting and he talks back to him. All the goats in the film are shown to reciprocate the character’s plight. We can ask an actor to emote but that is not the same with animals. We have to keep waiting till it is done.”
Resul Pookutty travelled for weeks in the desert
To create the sound for the film, Pookutty spent hours in the desert to get the right audio that compliments Najeem’s struggle. “After the shoot, I travelled to the Middle East and spent hours recording animal sounds. I spent more than a week travelling deep inside the desert to understand what it sounds like. I spent time with camels, walked with them in the desert, and tried to understand their movement, grunts and behaviour."
While the narrative takes place in Saudi, the makers never got to shoot the film in the country. "The film is banned in Saudi and most GCC countries. So we had to shoot in Jordan, Algeria, Egypt. But the story was happening in Saudi so we had to make it feel like it was there. I went to the Middle East to record sounds so that the authenticity of the desert is intact. To create the sound of walking on the sand I had people from Ukraine do it. I had folly artists from Ukraine fly in during the war who were working on it. This is not just a regional film that we did in Malayalam, a lot of bigger thoughts went behind it. There are Palestinian singers too who were brought in to create ambiance," he shared.
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