Are you looking for a DVD of the Apu Trilogy? Log on to a site called “Movie Mail” (http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/film/12274/The-Apu-Trilogy-(Box-Set)/) and buy it online for 26.99 GBP…Or do you prefer Ritwik Ghatak? Get DVDs for  The Cloud-Capped Star (Meghe Dhaka Tara) or A River Called Titas (Titas Ekti Nodir Nam) from the BFI website (http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk) at 10.99 GBP each. All loaded with bonus features and goodies.

Now, can you get the same stuff here in India? Yeah, but not quite the same: no bonus features,  interviews or commentary.  And old, hackneyed, barely legible prints. And the film buff cribs on.

Are you into vintage Bollywood? Befriend Moser Baer (occasionally, Shemaroo or Eagle). Labels like Palador/Moser Baer or Lumiere or even Shemaroo would go to great lengths to get you Mon Oncle or Breathless or Head On or Metropolis, but they don’t give two hoots for Sholay, Guide, Mother India or Pyaasa. T-Series comes up with a two-disc edition for Bhool Bhulaiya, but Sholay is still “Bare Bones!” Don’t worry, most of these titles do have a host of ‘Special Features’ listed. Sample this gem from the back-cover of Chashme Buddoor (a classic in its own right) DVD:

SPECIAL FEATURES:

  • ENGLISH SUBTITLES
  • ALL REGION DVD
  • DIGITALLY MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL FILM (Duh! so NOT true!)
  • DOLBY DIGITAL SOUND (Yeah, right! Thank heavens for the subtitles)
  • INTERACTIVE MENUS OF SONGS AND SCENES FOR EASY ACCESS

A very easy excuse for this sloppiness  can be the desire to reduce costs and thereby keep prices affordable. Balderdash! Firstly, why charge more for a DVD than a VCD, if the image and sound quality is nearly the same? Secondly, why can’t we have a ‘Special Collector’s Edition” and a Bare Bones Edition (without features) for the same film, and charge a premium for the former? If Guru Dutt Collection or Dev Anand Collection (hell, even a Yash Chopra Collection) can sell so damn well, why not Special Limited Edition of individual classics?

Not to mention films that never seem to have had a decent DVD release. Look for Raakh, Holi, Shart or Nishant in your Planet M’s and Landmarks. Most probably in vain. This adds an entire dimension to the fact that we so miserably fail to celebrate the true victories of Hindi film industry.

The way out? Well, here are a few pointers to the powers that be:

1. Treat Indian cinema with the respect it deserves….whoever is at the helm of these labels should be more knowledgeable about cinema and strongly conscious of the rich heritage of the film in India.

2. Don’t insult Indian audiences the way most of our producers do…or adopt a casual approach of somehow printing the movies on disc and releasing in a hurry…there are thousands of Hindi film aficionados out there who’d give their right arm for special remastered editions of Indian classics like Sholay, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Golmaal etc..

3. There is a larger issue that deserves our attention before it is too late…that of proper preservation, archiving and databasing our films. How many of Mani Kaul’s or Kumar Shahani’s films are on print? Imdb does a commendable but incomprehensive job of databasing Indian cinema. For example, Kamal Hassan starred alongside Mala Sinha in a Bengali film called Kabita. The film is significant in the sense that Kamal actually took the pains of learning the language and delivering all the dialogues himself; but the film doesn’t show up on either of Sinha’s or Hassan’s Imdb profiles!

Or are we fated to put up with shoddy prints for ever? Is there anyone out there who feels the same frustration? Add on!

Amborish Roychoudhury is a film enthusiast and a film buff  who lives within this outer shell of a finance  professional. He is  extremely passionate about films, comics, old Hindi film music, detective fiction, technology and the like – He worships many deities but works for the devil! Another Blog that  he write occasionally is http://amborish.posterous.com/ or just go to amborish.com