“I am a humble cinema boy,” goes the first line of Oscar winner Resul Pookutty's autobiography Sabdatharapadam (The milky way of sound), which was released by Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan here on Thursday.
The first copy of the sound engineer's autobiography was handed over to music composer A. R. Rahman and eminent lyricist Gulzar.
The event, aptly named ‘Sound of music' was organised by the Malayala Manorama and Penguin, publishers of the book. In his address, Jacob Matthews, Executive Editor of Malayala Manorama described Pookutty as “one of the most creative men of our times.” This was the first time someone had made music the theme of his autobiography.
The Governor called the autobiography “a unique book.” He was indeed fortunate to be living in the same era as the three examples of human excellence seated beside him, he said referring to Mr. Rahman, Mr. Gulzar and Mr. Pookutty.
The autobiography is written by Mr. Pookutty along with Baiju Natarajan in Malayalam.
Mr. Pookutty thanked Mr. Natarajan for his assistance in penning the book. He pointed out that he saw Sabdatharapadam more as a travelogue than as an autobiography. He too, like everyone else, wanted to be someone else in the various stages of his childhood. Reading out two chapters, he regaled the audience with the light tone and funny excerpts from the book.
Mr. Rahman said, “Any musical instrument gets its magic due to the artist who plays it.” He wished Mr. Pookutty all the best. Mr. Gulzar praised Mr. Pookutty for putting sound engineers on the world map. He said he felt young and inspired working with talents such as Mr. Rahman and Mr. Pookutty.
An English version of the autobiography, translated by K.K. Murlidharan, is to be released soon.
