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Restored ‘Pyaasa’ will be screened at Jio MAMI this year

Mumbai-based company Ultra has restored the yesteryear classic and will present the new print in Mumbai film festival next month.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Pyaasa, a 1957 cult classic, will be screened in the restored section at the 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in Mumbai on November 1 and 3. The film will be screened at PVR ECX, Andheri and PVR, Phoenix Lower Parel respectively.

The ‘Restored classics section’ in Jio MAMI this year will screen six more films. This particular section has evoked a lot of interest amongst the festival goers and common public in general.

Produced and directed by Guru Dutt, this classic features an ensemble star cast comprising Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Mala Sinha, Johnny Walker, Rehman, Mehmood, Tun Tun etc. The movie boasts of one of the best musical scores put together by SD Burman, Sahir Ludhianvi, Mohammed Rafi, Geeta Dutt and Hemant Kumar, featuring such evergreen songs as ‘Jaane Woh Kaise Log’, ‘Yeh Duniya Agar Mil’ and ‘Jaane Kya Tune Kahi’.

The film was restored by Ultra which will also re-release the film theatrically worldwide after MAMI.

How Pyaasa was restored

The most challenging part in restoring Pyaasa was sourcing the authentic materials to complete the preservation. After much effort, Ultra found the original camera negatives of the film at an archive in India; however a lot of the parts of the negatives were either damaged or lost.

They decided to use as many parts as possible from the original camera negatives and a few parts were used from 35 mm prints. A new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on the ARRISCAN film scanner. This in-house technology helped in applying a multidisciplinary, data-centric approach to the entire film’s restoration process.

Once the complete film was digitally transferred, came the most challenging part of restoration. Thousands of instances of dirt, lines, scratches, splices, warps, jitters and green patches were manually removed frame by frame under careful supervision by experienced artists.

The in-house talented professionals used a specialised film content mending and defect removal mechanism in their repair process. They carefully selected the best way to restore this priceless classic to its original quality.

The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 35mm optical soundtrack. Clicks, thumps, hisses and hums were manually removed frame by frame.

Says Anupama Chopra, Festival Director, Jio MAMI, “We at MAMI are indeed delighted to screen Pyaasa. There are some masterpieces of the bygone era that a lot of people have not seen, either due to their poor condition or inaccessibility. These films when restored the right way can give it a completely new life and also can help not only to be screened but also as a strong reference material.”

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Film

Review: Rajwade and Sons

This week’s release is the story of generational conflict in one of Pune’s richest business families. Watch it with family.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

A film about business, interpersonal relationships and how succeeding generations view the world through a different prism, Rajwade and Sons is a story of familial obligations, stifling dreams and carrying on age-old traditions.

Adamant patriarch Rameshrao Rajwade (Satish Alekar) is the head of the Rajwade family and his children – Vidyadhar (Sachin Khedekar), Laxmi (Mrinal Kulkarni) and Shubhankar (Atul Kulkarni) obey their father’s decisions and orthodox values without questioning him.

Vidyadhar is prone to snooping on his children by checking their Facebook accounts and even discussing the same with his wife. Meanwhile, Anay is slightly self-centred with his love for shoes and his laptop, while Shweta is interested in working and travelling around the world.  Laxmi lives in her father’s place along with husband Vaibhav Joshi (Rahul Mehendale) and their kids – Annaya (Mrinmayee Godbole) and Virajas (Siddharth Menon). Virajas is shown working half-heartily in family business with Anay, while Annaya wants to pursue her career in modeling.

 

In this cast of characters is introduced Vikram (Amitriyaan Patil), Rameshrao’s estranged son who has left the family home years ago and not been in touch ever since. Anay, Annaya, Shweta and Virajas go to their old home and discover Vikram’s belongings and also take some of the things. Till one day, Vikram returns and everyone is excited and happy to see him, except for Rameshrao, Shubhankar and Vaibhav. They suspect that he has come for his share of the money and property. Vikram’s entry in the family energises the third generation of the Rajwade family to pursuing their dreams.

Sachin Kundalkar keeps the right amount of twists in the story, and realistically showcases how the older generation’s decisions are forced on the succeeding ones. There is a harsh glare shone on the infighting and the concept of the Indian joint family that restricts the younger generation from living their dreams. The pace of the film is well balanced in the second half with good camerawork by Arjun Sorte. Atul Kulkarni and Amitriyan Patil deliver good performances and they are very well supported by Alok Rajwade, Krutika Deo, Mrinmayee Godbole and Siddharth Menon. This one is a good watch with your family members – even the extended family ones.

(Picture courtesy marathimovieworld.com)

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Film

Review: Sicario

A fast-paced thriller that explores morality and humanity in interactions with criminals, this one’s a one-time watch for action fans.
by Ravi Shet
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Sicario is directed by Denis Villeneuve, and it is a story that deals with the drug trade and how US agencies sometimes bend the rules to dismantle this business and the people associated with them.

The film features FBI Special Weapons and Tactics Teams agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), agent Reggie Wayne (Daniel Kaluuya) and their team on their way to raid a house in Chandler, Arizona. To their shock, the FBI team discovers an array of dead bodies embedded in the walls of house, while two FBI officers are killed by an explosion in the backyard.

Dave Jennings (Victor Garber), Kate’s boss, Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), Department of Defense advisor and others include Kate and her elite team of agents in a plan to look for the person responsible for the incident, which includes cartel boss Manuel Diaz (Bernardo Saracino). Kate and Matt leave for their mission via plane to El Paso, where Alejandro Gillick (Benico Del Toro) joins them. Kate soon discovers many disturbing facts – the plan is going to Juarez, Mexico instead of El Paso, Texas to extract a prisoner named Guillermo, Manuel’s henchman. Then, Matt’s methods are highly questionable when extracting the criminals, with no concern for civilian safety and civil laws.

 

Soon, Guillermo is badly tortured by Matt and Alejandro to know the whereabouts of Manuel. Matt and Alejandro succeed in getting the exact location of the tunnel that the cartel uses to get drugs into the US through the help of Mexican migrants. Kate and Reggie feel that Matt keeps them in the dark about many details and do not answer their doubts convincingly. This back intrigue sets the stage for many twists in the story.

The pace of the film is well maintained. Roger Deakins’s camerawork is superlative, especially in the scenes shot through underground tunnels on different types of night-vision equipments. Emily portrays Kate with the right balance of strength and empathy, while Josh Brolin and Benico Del Toro support the film with solid performances. This one’s a must-watch for thriller and action fans.

(Picture courtesy www.sbs.com.au)

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Film

Review: Dagadi Chawl

Excellent performances and slick camera work make this film stand out, though the story and plot follow a predictable graph.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

Dagadi Chawl directed by debutant director Chandrakant Kanse not only focuses on gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli (known as ‘Daddy’) but also highlights the story of a common man caught in the deadly world of crime and the era of gang wars in late 90s.

The film, based in Mumbai in 1996, starts with Daddy (played by Makrand Deshpande) performing a puja at Dagadi Chawl, while his trusted henchman, Chandu Mama (Sanjay Khapre) attacks a local politician who is set to contest elections against Gawli.

Suryakant Sadashiv Shinde aka Surya (Ankush Chaudhari) who works for Daddy collects extortion money from a builder named Desai. On getting a complaint from Desai, encounter specialist Inspector Kale (Kamlesh Sawant) picks up Surya and plans to bump him off to complete a half century of encounters. However, DCP Ashfaq Khan interrupts Kale’s vehicle and demands that Surya be transferred to him.

On interrogation, Surya reveals the story of how he chanced upon a life of crime: when a group of goons harasses his girlfriend, he gets into an altercation that ends with him beating many of them up. This lands him squarely in Daddy’s crosshairs, because the goons are his boys.

This film will remind you of the gritty Satya and Vaastav, since the backdrop of the plot is quite similar. Here too, an innocent man falls prey to an unforeseen situation and ends up in the murky world of crime. Some of the scenes in the movie are predictable; however some slick camera work clubbed with a good background score and sharp editing are the positives of the film.

Ankush Chaudhari as Surya justifies his role perfectly; however Makrand Deshpande as Daddy impresses the audiences a lot more through his body language and dialogue delivery. Sanjay Khapre and Yatin Karyekar play good supporting roles. Many in the audience will also love the ‘Morya’ song played during the Ganesh Visarjan scene.

(Picture courtesy marathistars.com)

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Film

Review: The Intern

A heart warming story about bridging the generational gap, this one’s a must-watch for its Academy Award winning lead performers.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

A 70-year-old widower, Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro), fights his boredom and looks for something to do. While buying groceries, he finds a flier mentioning a recruitment drive for senior citizen interns at an e-commerce startup that sells clothes. He decides to apply and go for the interview; in an age of Instagram and Facebook, he is confident that his experience will serve the company.

Aboutthefit.com is a small online clothing shop owned by Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway), which has now turned into a successful business. Jules is a hands-on, informal boss who is strict about the brand and customer service. When informed about the senior citizen recruitments, she is initially skeptical about keeping an intern, then later finalises Ben.

 

Ben is punctual, warm and hard working. Meanwhile, Jules juggles a busy career with a daughter and stay-at-home husband, Matt. At work, Jules initially ignores Ben – after all, he is just an intern – but later they develop a good understanding become good friends. There are some interesting scenes, such as Jules helping Ben open his account on Facebook and their conversations that take place while doing so.

Robert De Niro and Anne Hathway portray their roles with ease and deliver sparklingly good performances. There are some genuinely warm and funny moments in the film which will make you laugh out loud. This one is a one-time watch, especially for fans of Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway.

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Film

Vaajlaach Paahije – Game Ki Shinema

A story that tries to highlight the sleazy side of the film world, the film fails spectacularly at every level.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 2 out of 5

As stories go, this one had the potential to be both a laugh fest and a thought-provoking critique on the ills of the movie world. However, this film does neither and is merely an excruciating watch for the audience.

Vaajlaach Paahije – Game Ki Shinema (directed by R Viraj) starts with struggling director Makarand Thokare aka Yash (Rajesh Bhosale) auditioning actors for an upcoming film. Sitting in on the auditions is Raj (Chinmay Udgirkar), a struggling actor himself. Yash and Raj are desperately looking for a producer who can finance their film. During their hunt for a producer, they meet moneybags producer Bhau Damdar (Bhalchandra Kadam), who is in the business only to get intimate with pretty girls.

Bhau agrees to finance the duo’s film on the condition that they get a beautiful heroine for it. He also hands over an advance payment to the duo so that the heroine can be brought in quickly.

 

Raj goes out to look for ‘suitable’ faces and finalises Supriya (Girija Joshi) – but Supriya has an ulterior motive up her sleeve. Pretending that she needs the role because she is poor, she also accepts that Raj is infatuated with her. Meanwhile, Yash is at his wits’ end because Bhau rejects each script he brings, before saying that he wants the film to be made on a truly terrible script, ‘Nal Damayanti – The Intimate Love Story’.

Bhau is excited about meeting the girl for the film, but there is a shock in store when Yash and Supriya turn out to be siblings. By this time, Yash has decided to make a film on the sly without their producer knowing about it, and also to save his sister from Bhau’s clutches.

R Viraj has tried hard to bring Dada Kondke’s style of cinema back with this film, however he fails miserably at the attempt. Bhalchandra Kadam delivers a good performance as a filthy producer. Apart from some funny moments, the film falls flat in every possible way. Also, the innuendo in the dialogues is forced and completely unfunny.

(Picture courtesy starblockbuster.com)

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