Title: Lafangey Parindey
Year: 2010
BD Release: 2010
IMDB Rating: 5.7
Category: Action | Drama | Musical | Romance
Distributor: YRF Home Entertainment
Authoring House: U-Tech
MRP: Rs. 699/-
Region Coding: A/B/C
Media: Main Feature - 50GB BD
Running Time: 02:06:19 hrs
Chapters 24
Video:
2.35:1, HD 1080p 16:9, AVC 24Hz
Peak Bitrate 40.1Mbps | Average bitrate ?Mbps
Audio:
1/2 Hindi - Dolby Digital 5.1 (48khz 640kbps) <-- Redundant & Space wasting
2/2 Hindi - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48khz Peak - 3.5mpbs) <-- Default Track
Subtitles: <-- 2.35:1 Screen Friendly (Positioned at the bottom of the picture area)
1/2 English
2/2 Arabic
Special Features:
NONE

Special Mention:
No Watermark Logo, during songs or otherwise even with the subtitles on. <-- Thank you 'YRF Home Entertainment' for finally listening to our feedback.
No locking of any buttons during menus. Thereby allowing the viewer to skip to the next menu screen. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.
Separate 'Song Menu' to allow direct selection of song. <-- This should be a no brainer for all Bollywood films.

Authoring issues:
1. Upon making a selection the pop-up menus close only after 20 seconds. This is very irritating and totally unnecesary.
2. No option to 'Play All' in the song menu.

Review:
The good news is that 'YRF Home Entertainment' has finally done away with the obnoxious logo 'watermarks'. Yes, the logo 'watermark' is not there even with the subtitles on. It is a sign of a good company if they respect customer feedback and although 'YRF Home Entertainment' may have taken longer than they should have, they must still be commended for finally listening to their customers. Better late than never.

Movie: Although this movie does not come under the regular 'bollywood crap' category, ie. the mindless and stupid movies from the likes of Rohit Shetty, Priyadarshan etc., it still leaves one wondering how and why was this script approved. This is a movie that I found very hard to sit through and this is inspite of it's shorter than average running time. I suppose because I found the movie extremely boring and tiresome, the faults of the blu-ray stood out even more. It's quite possible that had the movie been more insteresting and involving, I might have noticed the picture flaws less.

Video: The picture on this blu-ray suffers from the same color temperature issues that the 'Badmaash Company' blu-ray did, except the problem is far worse on this blu-ray. The film seems to have been digitally mastered using a very cold color temperature setting, thus rendering the picture very cold and lifeless. The colors too are very unstaurated, there are a couple of very short moments under certain lighting, when the picture comes alive. To be honest I have not seen the film in the theater and thus cannot be sure that this is not how the director intended it. But to me, this seems like a poor job of mastering rather than director's artisitic intent. To make things worse, there are some boosted contrast issues and even more bothersome crushed blacks, as a result of which there is not much shadow detail. On the positive side, the picture is quite sharp with good detail unlike a lot of recent bollywood blu-rays that have been DNRed to to death. All in all though, this is by far the poorest looking 'YRF Home Entertainment' blu-ray of a non catalog title. Based on the standards of other recent 'YRF Home Entertainment' blu-rays, this one is a huge let down.

Audio: Unlike the video, the audio on this blu-ray is much better and although I found it less than stellar, it is still satisfactory. The two main problems I have with the audio are something that I find to be rather common problems with a lot of bollywood blu-rays, ie. ill defined and boomy bass and ofcourse the perennial problem of the volume level being high.

Extras: The lack of extras on this blu-ray is a surprise. Considering that 'YRF Home Entertainment' have not only been the only bollywood video company to consistently provide extras on their blu-ray releases, they have actually also been quite good in this regard. They have not only been providing a good set of extra materials, but have also been putting them on a seperate DVD to maintain the quality of the main BD. Thus for them to release this totally barebones, is not only a let-down, but also not a good sign for future releases.

PS: Considering that 'Badmaash Company' was authored by Shemarooo and this has been authored by U-Tech, it leads me to believe that the cool color temperature issue is a 'film to digital' mastering issue, rather than an authoring one. I sure hope 'YRF Home Entertainment' addresses their mastering issues before more blu-rays are rendered as lifeless and dull as this one.

Not Recommended

My ratings:
Movie: 2.25 out of 5.0
Video: 3.25 out of 5.0
Audio: 3.75 out of 5.0
Extras: 0 out of 5.0
Misc.: 3.0 out of 5.0
Overall: 2.70 out of 5.0





Screenshots courtesy 'DDR'
For some more screenshots --> Blu-ray Screenshot: Lafangey Parindey - 2010 (YRF)

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 v3.50)

o....i have already bought this blu ray..though i havnt seen the movie yet...i was considering the pq to be at par with badmaash comp............though you have mentioned the picture has grain and is sharp........newayzz sanjay can you plzz review mohabbatein i reely wanna get that disk.......if not review can you clarify the point of psudo fake surround sound in songs.......??

Thanks for asking this to Sanjay Divyansh. Even I have the same unanswered question pending in blu ay forum. However if i (hopefully) receive my BD today I will answer this myself...fingers crossed...cant wait!

Great review fro LP Sanjay!! I really appreciate your eye for detailing. However sometimes I also get a feel you are brutally honest bout a BD ... i.e. in a good way .

I am just curious for this part sanjay, how should one decide who has (like me) not watched the film in Theatres that this could be indeed the director so called 'vision' indeeed? I mean if some x member confirms after your review is posted that this was the intended vision, no matter how ill fitting and flawed it looks, will you improve the rating of BD just by believing this x person? This btw, is not paticular to this film. A General opinion.

One more question if anyone can enlighten me ... as my knowledge is bit weak in these things. when a film gets transferred or say mastered digitally from reel, is the same used for projection in digital theatres? Also, is the source for BD the same digital transfer or is it differently mastered for theatre and differently for BD? I also read somewhere that some HD CAM SR tapes are used for BD. what makes the digital source for BD different than digital source for theatrical projection?

The whole question is aimed at finding out a way to judge the intended look of the film.

Hey Divyansh, This is to confirm the fact that has been worrying both of us for long now. I just received the Mohabatein BD("sighs" finally) and can confirm you one thing for sure- It is a false alarm. Yes we need not worry about the audio. The audio is exactly as it was mixed for the film. I repeat it is NOT pseudo surround.

Sorry guys i know its not bout mohabbatein thread but wanted to confirm to fans. WIll post my commenst about the BD separately soon.