Augmenting Imaginary Visual Planes through Sounds: Acoustic Aesthetics of Malayalam Radio Plays

Abstract

Radio as a medium of entertainment is presently being considered as a grandmother’s tale basked in yesteryear’s glory. What makes the radio unique is the fact that it talked privately to each of its listeners – something that cannot be replaced by the media boom in the post the internet era. The radio produced programmes that are exceptional and cannot be replanted to any other medium. One such form of art is the radio drama which stands distinct from its visual counterpart, right from its inception, production, and transmission. Malayalam radio drama can boast of unanimous monopoly during its conception in the early 1940s on the backdrop of Travancore Radio. The first radio drama in Malayalam was aired from Madras All India Radio in the year 1940. Through these eight decades the trail of Malayalam radio drama had its own thrusts and falls. Each phase of this genre marks diverse sociological, cultural, ideological, and technological purposes. This paper aims at identifying how radio drama acted as a bridge between this popular medium and the society and presupposes the relevance of radio drama in the present age. A much-acclaimed radio play ‘Otta’ has been studied here to analyze the technological and thematic shifts that have embraced the medium. K.V.Sarathchandran a contemporary radio playwright produced ‘Otta’ for presenting it in the radio drama festival of 2009. He could be hailed as an experimental playwright who is experienced in the field of radio productions. ‘Otta’ is his masterpiece work that utilizes only a single character throughout the play. An hour length play is taken forward by the monologues of a single character and his occasional conversations with his pet dog. The play which could be categorized as a thriller is an example of how an audio medium creates a unique world of imagination for its listeners. This paper digs deeper into the acoustic aesthetics created by ‘Otta’.