MOHALI, OCTOBER 29, 2014: The seven notes of our vocal chords carry a magical world of possibilities. And the possibilities don’t stop at seven notes. If we decide to play with our voice, the possibilities begin to travel… they run through dusty roads, deserts, or flow along rivers & dive into oceans and scale mountains and walk through forests & pause in caves and chant from deep within. The voice is an immense tool and for an actor, it is the most crucial playfield. All this & more, flowed out & around the studio space at My Dream Academy on Wednesday as the much-awarded radio announcer, live anchor, narrator & voice creator ZAKI HASHMI shared precious notes with the students of Six Month Advanced Course in Acting.
Zaki, gifted with a deep baritone, flexible chords, acting & mimicry capabilities & much more, spent a good two hours with the students handing out a detailed list of must-haves for a voice artiste across range, diction, pronunciation, throw, delivery, modulation, & playing with the voice…. He embroidered his session with anecdotes, poetry, dialogues, & conversation. The students who come from across the region including cities like Sirsa, Fategarh Sahib, Patiala, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, stand to shed adulterated diction & learn precious lessons in diction without mixing dialects.
Zaki has trained endless students in voice modulation, has hosted famous shows like Lamhe Zaki Hashmi Ke Saath, besides lending his voice to many documentaries, recitations & commercials. He is also authoring a book on voice culture: ‘Meri Aaawaaz Hi Pehchaan Hai’ which is slated to be out early next year.
His lessons: Speak from the heart, speak little but meaningful, and speak right & do full justice to each word & in accordance with the purity of that language. And yes, for an artist, the whole world is his home. His diction should slip into the colour of each language without any affectedness.
Golden lessons for an actor! The faces of the students reciprocated the sentiment.