At Audio Matrix Studio in Alappuzha, Reji Kalavoor is voicing a conversation between detective Sherlock Holmes and physician Dr. John Watson. The Malayalam narration of a Sherlock Holmes thriller is for an audio book. He recently completed the recording of Mowgli, voicing all the characters in their differently nuanced voices and is now keenly looking forward to dubbing more than ten characters from Akhil P Dharmajan’s horror-thriller Ouija Board.
Well-known AIR storyteller Thennal from Bolghatty is excited about having to record Kamala Das’s Rohini for its audio version. Both the vocal talents are among many other narrators who have been roped in by Kathacafé, a pioneering Malayalam audio books initiative started by IT Consultant Binuraj Nair . He is upbeat about the future of audio books and believes it to be the next big thing in the literary State of Kerala.
Binuraj hails from Vaikom and shuttles between Kerala and England, on work. An audio book buff, he says, “Kerala is a highly literate State and has strong readership. The awareness of books and of changes in the reading world is followed keenly. I felt that audio books in Malayalam would be a good venture to start. Besides, this generation uses android phones and is easy using their devices.”
Binu launched Kathacafé in February, 2017, with books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and Oscar Doyle. To lure users he began with an initial offer of ₹100, as incentive, to download the app and buy the books. This received excellent response. A year later they have 20,000 app downloads and the same number of book downloads.
The making of an audio book in Malayalam means good translation. “This needs expertise. Old style Malayalam with long sentences and archaic lingo is not suitable for the current generation. The language and the dialogues have to be modified, made contemporary,” says Binu who monitors the venture online; when in Kerala he meets his team of narrators at the studio in Alappuzha.
Still in its infancy, Katha Café began with translations of English classics and popular novels. The idea of beginning with horror-thrillers came to be because of the inherent element of drama , which readers enjoyed. Emboldened by the initial success, the editors decided to make it more listener friendly and added background music. Audio versions of popular children’s books like Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid and Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book were produced.
In the second stage the team has begun approaching Malayalam authors for copyrights of their books. Audio versions of books by KL Mohana Varma and Madhavikutty are in the pipeline.
Akhil who self-published his first book at 17, which was among the top ten trending books on Amazon, is excited that his book will be the first Malayalam book to get an audio format. He says, “Audio books are trending. Though the reading habit is still there people don’t have time to visit a library or read for long hours. Audio books are a practical solution. They can be bought online and listened to even while driving.”
Binu, who often listens to audio books while driving to work, says, “It is heartening to read listeners’ posts, comments on Playstore. Typical of knowledgeable book lovers, they want audio versions of MT Vasudevan’s works. Someone has made a request for The Alchemist.”