In all honesty, due to the long history of atrocious audio/video quality, huge/ugly logo watermarks and forced advertising on DVDs produced/authored by Shemaroo, I like many others, had been dreading the day Shemaroo got into the business of authoring Blu-rays. Thus when I first heard that Yash Raj had given the job of authoring 'Badmaash Company' to Shemaroo, I had started preparing myself for the worst. I must say, that my fears have turned out to be quite baseless, atleast as far as this first attempt by Shemaroo is concerned. In fact Shemaroo has done a rather good job, specially considering that this is their very first attempt. They have even gotten atleast the very basics of pop-up menu design and function right, something that other Indian authoring companies have not been able to do even after having authored numerous blu-rays. I wonder if the reason for this is simple ineptness or just the lack of desire to do things right. After all if Shemaroo can get it right in their very first attempt, there is no excuse for others to continue to not get it right. As for Shemaroo, hopefully this blu-ray is a sign of even bigger and better things from them. I hope not only will Shemaroo continue to do good work, but will also continue to take active feedback from customers and forums such as this, to not only stay abreast with customer needs but also to keep themselves clear of the effects of feedback from psychophants, something that has plagued bollywood and the indian video industry forever.

Title: Badmaash Company
Year: 2010
BD Release: 2010
IMDB Rating: 6.1
Category: Crime | Musical | Thriller
Distributor: YRF Home Entertainment
Authoring House: Shemaroo
MRP: Rs. 699/-
Region Coding: A/B/C
Media: Main Feature - 50GB BD | Special Features - 5GB DVD
Running Time: 02:21:37 hrs
Chapters 24
Video:
2.35:1, HD 1080p 16:9, AVC 24Hz
Peak Bitrate 41.2Mbps | Average bitrate 37Mbps
Audio:
Hindi - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48khz 5.7Mbps) <-- Default Track
Hindi - Dolby Digital 5.1 (48khz 448kbps) <-- Redundant & Space wasting
Subtitles: <-- 2.35:1 Screen Friendly (Positioned at the bottom of the picture area)
1/2 English
2/2 Arabic <-- Incorrectly listed as English
Special Features: Presented on separate DVD in 4x3
1. Making Of the Film
2. Deleted Scenes
3. Music Video
4. Making of Music Video
5. Meet the Badmaash Company
6. Theatrical Trailer & Promos

Special Mention:
Logo 'Watermarks' are displayed at the beginign of songs if sub-titles are on. <-- Shame on 'YRF Home Entertainment' for being the only company to continue with this obnoxious practise.
Separate 'Song Menu' to allow direct selection of song. <-- This should be a no brainer for all Bollywood films.
Special Features presented on a seperate DVD to allow more space on the BD for the main feature. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.

Authoring issues:
1. The sub-tilte menu displayed when the sub-title button is pressed, incorrectly lists the Arabic subtitles also as English sub-titles.
2. No option to 'Play All' songs. This is not really a screw up, but nevertheless it is something that ought to be an option on all Indian Blu-rays.

Review:
The movie itself quite entertaining and moves at a brisk pace as a thriller must. Also, fortunately the director spares us the typical melodrama of Hindi movies. The movie does suffer from some cliched situations and perceptions of the US, but fortunately this does not keep the film from becoming totally predicatable and thus the film remains entertaining thru the end.

The video quality of this blu-ray is quite good, but it never rises to the level of other recent Yash Raj blu-rays such as 'Pyaar Impossible' and 'Dil Bole Hadippa'. As good as the picture looks at times, it just does not have the eye popping qualities of the prior mentioned blu-rays. The colors are under saturated and quite anaemic, also the color temperature is on the cooler side robbing the film of much needed warmth, pun intended. The hues too are a little inconsistent and there are unmistakable signs of DNR resulting in parts that are quite soft. The lack of a sharp, totally film like picture with the film grain intact, is what continues to be missing from the majority of Hindi blu-rays and in this context this blu-ray too is pretty average. There is also an issue of extra brightness in some scenes, resulting in the whites being clipped. But nevertheless all in all, the video on this blu-ray is still above average and quite satisfactory.

It is with the audio that blu-ray truelly shines and it has got to be one of the best Hindi blu-rays released so far. For once, unlike most Indian blu-rays, the bass is not boomy and is tight and deep. The volume levels are just right and for once the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track actually sounds lossless. The audio on this is presented with a clarity that comes close to that heard only so far on the 'Bodega' BD of Jodhaa Akbar or the 'Sony' BD of Saawariya. The sound mixing too is quite good and makes good use of the surrounds and a 360 degree sound field is active almost throughout the movie.

Extras is an area in which 'Yash Raj' continues to excel. They have maintained this tradition with this release too. More importantly, in what has now become a 'Yash Raj HE' standard, the special features are presented on a separate DVD of their own. The poor quality 'Yash Raj Films' logo during the opening menus is an irritant that still continues to plague the 'YRF HE' BDs. The sooner 'Yash Raj' addresses this, the better it will be for them. For, having their own logo presented in a totally artifact ridden, upsampled standard definition video can only be an embarassement to them and most certainly presents the company in very poor light.

This 'Yash Raj HE' blu-ray, all in all is a praiseworthy first job from Shemaroo, who must be commended for a good job done and also encouraged to continue to do even better. I Recommend this BD, for it's excellent audio and good video quality along with a good set of special features. But I must add that I recommend this, only with reservations due to the logo 'watermarks' and the poor packaging.

Yash Raj's continued obesession with logo 'watermarks' is totally beyond me and I feel unless they stop with this obnoxious practise, we as consumers will have no choice but to totally boycott all Yash Raj titles until the time they learn to respect their paying customers. I sincerely hope that it does not come down to this and that 'YRF - Home Entertainment' will immediately put a stop to this practise. Now that even T-Series has stopped putting logo 'watermarks' on their blu-rays, Yash Raj's stubborness in the matter stands out even that much more.

My ratings:
Movie: 3.75 out of 5.0
Video: 4.00 out of 5.0
Audio: 4.75 out of 5.0
Extras: 3.75 out of 5.0 (Special features in HD would have increased this score)
Overall: 3.75 out of 5.0 (Poor packaging keeps the score from being higher)
The overall score has been further reduced, due to 'YashRaj logo' watermarks at the starting of songs. The watermarks are visible only if the sub-titles are on.





Screenshots courtesy 'DDR'

Equipment used for testing:
Projector: Panasonic PT-AE2000U
Screen: Da-Lite 4:3 120" 'Model B' - White Matte
Viewing Distance: 11' 6"
A/V Receiver: Denon AVR5800
Speakers: 5.1
Front/Main: Paradigm Reference 100 v2
Center: Paradigm Reference Studio CC v2
Rear: Tannoy - Mercury M5
Subwoofer: Paradigm Reference Servo 15
BD Player:
Oppo BDP-83 (Hardware Modified 'Region Free' with 'BDP83-50-0424' firmware)
PS3 (80GB US 'Region A' with firmware v3.41)

I wish film had a repeat value I barely finished this bad raju bad man the first time though.

I think we can label all the Hindi Blu-Ray authors as "Badmaash Companies"

Now in the 3-D age and still no decent Blue ray-

I am not sure I understand the negative comments in this thread considering that Shemaroo has done a pretty credible job with this blu-ray.

My comment was for the MOVIE! btw.

Sanjay Bhai, you mean to say that just DTS-HD MA audio is more than enough in BRDs??

Yes. That is correct.

Except for their annoying watermarks and advertisements, Shemaroo is better of all other companies. Take Eros, Moserbaer, Eagle, Ultra, GVI, etc. For instance, don't you think their DVDs are much superior?

Look at "Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja" by Shemaroo. It beats the crap out of the Eros and Moserbaer versions.

I don't think I, you or anyone else would call their quality "atrocious". Unless they are not compared with DEi, they are quite decent.

By no means are they excellent or perfect. But compared to the DVDs of old movie we get to see, Shemaroo versions of the same are far more superior.

Tell me any one instance where Shemaroo DVDs are poorer than any other version (not DEi/BE or EVP progressive titles)

I only bash Shemaroo when I compared my DVD with a DEi DVD of the same movie.

Calling their quality atrocious is over the top.