H SRIDHAR, MAGICIAN OF SOUND MIXING AND HENCHMAN OF A.R. RAHMAN

The untimely demise of H.Sridhar on December 1, 2008 will definitely disappoint the music lovers of India. The popular Sound Engineer from Chennai was the key role of several dashing hits of A.R.Rahman. From A.R.R’s first film “Roja” to the recent Jodha Akbar, Sridhar added flavour to rahman’s golden music works.

He started his career as a professional audiographer from 1988 and had engineered over 200 films. He worked closely with directors like Mani Ratnam, (Roja, Kannathil Muthamittar, Bombay, Ayitha Ezhuthu …etc) K Balachandar, Bharathiraaja, Shankar, P C Sreeram, Priyadarsan, Sibi Malayil and Ramgopal Varma.


Sridhar has been awarded the President's Gold Medal (The National Award for Best Audiography) twice: for the film Mahanadi in 1994 and for Dil Se in 1999. He also got the same for, Kannathil Muthamittar and Lagaan.


The diehard fans of A.R.Rahman have good familiarity with Sridhar since the duo excels every other musician with their team work. Sridhar engineered the correct sound equilibrium to the Mozart of Asia and they produced evergreen hits like Roja, Gentleman, Kadhalan, Thiruda Thiruda, Bombay, Duet, Rangeela, Muthu, Indian, Minsaara Kanavu and Iruvar.

His combination with Ilayaraja for the National Award Winning Malayalam film “Kalapani” was also stunning. He also engineered and mixed albums for international artists like George Harrison of The Beatles, John Neptune Kaizan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Zakir Hussain, L.Shankar and John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra & Shakti fame).
Having pioneered the use of Digital Sound for Indian films in the DTS format, Sridhar has successfully completed six-track surround sound mixing for more than 100 films including the 3D Malayalam film “My Dear Kuttichathan”.


Noted director Priyadarsan, who utilized Sreedhar’s creativity in his prestigious film “Kalapani” says: "He was the best sound engineer I have ever worked with; he pioneered the DTS format in the country"

But the sudden demise of this versatile genius will be an ultimate loss for the music maestro A.R.Rahman since his craftwork has given much freshness to A.R.R’s music.