Just received the DVD of 'Anupama' this evening from IW. Great Cover, by the way. I own only one Baba DVD ("Abhimaan") so I kind of knew what I was getting into, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this picture was a black and white movie. Kind of strange, considering that this came much after 'Kashmir ki Kali', a full color film, which was Sharmila's first movie in Hindi.
In any case, here is a short review :
ANUPAMA (Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore) Released By Baba Digital, New York, USA
Video :
In what can only be called typical Baba, the transfer is an obvious VHS to DVD conversion, complete with tracking marks, lines, and blurry imagery here and there. Bit rate is very low, ranging from 2.5 to 4.5. The sound is in mono, including the songs. Subtitles are hard to read, in a never before seen font style, they are not present on songs. Even 'Abhimaan' by Baba had more positives. However, even though the idea of a VHS to DVD transfer is pathetic to begin with, there is some degree of sharpness throughout, and the movie is just so good that pretty soon you stop worrying about the print. It helps that this is a black and white movie by the way, because there are no problems with color! The songs are encoded with a higher bitrate as well. There were no skipping problems. I am glad that there is some version of this Hrishikesh classic available. I have seen this film so many times throughout my life and it gets better with each viewing.
Audio:
The sound is in mono, but this is not as bad as it sounds. The songs all sounded great, though there was a slight sound drop-off at the beginning of the song 'Kuch dil ne kaha'.
Special Features:
Subtitles are the only real feature related to the movie. There is also a 30 minute segment featuring clips from all of Baba's new releases, and this was actually quite interesting. They covered about 40-50 movies here with clips from all of them.
Final Impressions:
This movie has been much awaited on DVD, and is one of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's finest. I personally rank it as his best film ever. With such a serious recommendation behind it, I would easily suggest this as a purchase for your DVD collection. This DVD could have been so much better in the hands of DEI for instance, but Baba has done a reasonably acceptable job. The main point of relief is that the 'Baba' Logo does not appear anywhere on the movie while it plays! I must stress that the quality of video, even though from VHS, is easily better than any of the Raj Kapoor collection DVDs such as 'Aah' and 'Awara'.
Guys, the reason I rated the DVD so highly is because I loved the film and the DVD authoring wasnt as terrible as people were warning me. Yes, its not GREAT quality, but like I said, I was surprised to find this DVD was better than some of those YRF DVDs and especially the old Raj Kapoor DVDs. Those DVDs even have the nerve to say that they havent remastered the film because they wanna preserve the 'nostalgic value' of the print. AS IF!! Baba may be horrible, but this is only the second DVD of theirs I've experienced, and I don't regret buying the DVD because I love the movie. But considering this is the only DVD release of Anupama, what else can one do?
Guys, the reason I rated the DVD so highly is because I loved the film and the DVD authoring wasnt as terrible as people were warning me. Yes, its not GREAT quality, but like I said, I was surprised to find this DVD was better than some of those YRF DVDs and especially the old Raj Kapoor DVDs. Those DVDs even have the nerve to say that they havent remastered the film because they wanna preserve the 'nostalgic value' of the print. AS IF!! Baba may be horrible, but this is only the second DVD of theirs I've experienced, and I don't regret buying the DVD because I love the movie. But considering this is the only DVD release of Anupama, what else can one do?
Ahh Kabir now you are revealing the reason for your Bias... would you be kind enuff to post some screenshots for this DVD ?.. I am pretty sure we can disprove you... universally, as even the die hard DVD fanatics find the quality of BABA "DIGITAL" ( wonder what is digital abt their DVDs) dvds worse than $hit.
I agree these wa****s have released some really hard to find classic films on DVDs... Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi... an all time classic has been raped by these *******s ... what else can you expect ? but pray and hope...someday some company will get hold of this film ....(original Negatives) and we will be blessed with a REAL DVD.. and not a joke called a BABA DVD !
SK, I am well aware of how poorly this DVD has been mastered. If you can call it mastering! My review clearly states that its obvious they ripped an old VHS copy and put it on DVD. Despite this, I love the DVD because I love the movie. I do not love Baba Digital. But I must thank them because its the only release of Anupama on the market.
Have any of you visited their website? Its at http://www.babadigital.com - many items are on 'sale'! Ha ha!
SK, I am well aware of how poorly this DVD has been mastered. If you can call it mastering! My review clearly states that its obvious they ripped an old VHS copy and put it on DVD. Despite this, I love the DVD because I love the movie. I do not love Baba Digital. But I must thank them because its the only release of Anupama on the market.
Have any of you visited their website? Its at http://www.babadigital.com - many items are on 'sale'! Ha ha!
Yes ... Kabir.. but ur 7/10 rating made me (and a few others here on zulm..whom I have on my ICQ contacts) laff heartily.. Maybe you have been exposed only recently to the $shit dished out by BABA Digital... else you would have emphatized with our situation !...
I really dont think a 7/10 rating is justified cos u loved the film... for which i would give a 10/10 rating.. This DVD (and any BABA DVD ) should get at most a rating of 1/10 only.. Come on you actually equated this DVD with a rating Ali gave for the dvd of Abhinetri ?.. which actually deserved more...maybe 8/10... That is a real good DVD..
It doesnt mean that just 'cos this is the only version out there, the dvd has to be a good dvd.
Kabir, I understand that you love the film, but the number ratings such as 7/10 should pertain to the technical quality ONLY, regardless of the film itself. Thus, the Eros-DEI Hum Aapke Hain Kaun would get an 8/10 because of the good quality while Anupama would likely get a 4/10 because of the VHS transfer.
Dragun, i see your points.. i would actual would give no more than 1.5/10 ..
But i think i know why Kabir rated it highly. Surely, It's nowhere near in comparison to other dvds that were rated 8/10 (by DEI .). What i found that in b/w films it's really not much that one can complain about; even if the contrast, the sharpness is poor, it's still not that irritating to the eyes where in colour film, if any one thing (colour, brightness, contrast, sharpness..) is missing it doesn't take too long for us rate it $hit.
The only Baba disc I have seen is Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, which hurt my eyes! I'm sorry I bought it. Blown out whites, noise reduction artifacts, soft picture, poor sound, etc. This colorful film is crying out for a DEI treatment.
This version is from a film print that was certified in 1977. Film length is 3977.34 m, which denotes that this film runs at 144 minutes. This version is 138 minutes. Taking PAL speedup into account, this version seems complete! This film has 5 lovely songs, from a Hemant Kumar and Kaifi Azmi association, that seem to be intact in this version:- 1) Dheere Dheere Machal by Lata Mangeshkar 2) Kyon Mujhe Itni Khushi De Di by Asha Bhosle 3) Bheegi Bheegi Fiza by Asha Bhosle 4) Kuchh Dil Ne Kaha by Lata Mangeshkar (one of my all-time favourite songs!) 5) Ya Dil Ki Suno by Hemant Kumar (interesting tidbit about this song is that it was created from the tune of a missing song from "Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam" that has not seen the light of day yet.) ------------------------------------- I did not find an Anuradha thread on the forums, therefore I decided to post here.
This version is from a film print that was certified in 1980. Film length is 3764.89 m, which denotes that this film runs at 137 minutes. This version is 131 minutes. Taking PAL speedup into account, this version seems complete! Some lovely songs belong to this film too! 1) Sanware Sanware Kahe Mose 2) Jaane Kaise Sapnon Mein Kho Gayi Ankhiyan 3) Haye Re Woh Din 4) Kaise Din Beeten
The film stars Balraj Sahni and the gorgeous Leela Naidu, the actress who found great acclaim for her performance in Merchant Ivory production The Householder.
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