Restored cult films set for second take

Kolkata: Way before Shyam Benegal directed 'Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero', another Hindi film was made on the freedom fighter. The Piyush Basu-directed film titled 'Subhas Chandra' had got the National Award for National Integration in 1966. A DVD of the Bengali version, which had Lata Mangeshkar's cult 'Ekbar biday de maa' in the soundtrack, was released but the Hindi version never saw the light of day.Fifty years later, the film's print will be restored, along with a number of Bengali classics.
In 1968, Sachin Adhikari had released 'Pathe Holo Dyakha', starring Bhanu Bandopadhyay, Jwahar Roy and Nripati Chattopadhyay. However, the prints of the movie weren't good enough for a DVD release. If all goes well, the print will be restored soon. Another such Bhanu Bandopadhyay film that has never been released on DVD but might soon release is 'Ogo Shuncho'.
Not just fresh releases of old movies, this year will see the re-release of DVDs of many Bengali films that have attained cult status. YouTube uploads, VCDs and DVDs of the original prints are available but most of these films have problems regarding fungus deposition, stabilisation, white droplet issues, stains, patches and vertical line formation. Poor audio quality is also a major headache. Dialogues are often inaudible and there is a lot of noise in the background. However, things are looking up what with copyright holders now understanding the importance of preservation.
One such important film that is being restored is KS Saigal's Bengali film 'Jeevan Maran'. "Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the former governor of West Bengal, had released a DVD of this movie. But we had used the original print. Hence, the quality had suffered. Now, we have decided to restore this film and re-release it," said Abhay Tantia, the founder of Angel Video that owns the rights of the film.
In the pipeline is restoration work of Mrinal Sen's 'Chorus', 'Ek Din Pratidin', Soumitra Chatter-starrer 'Baghini' and 'Monihar', Robi Ghosh-starrer 'Aashite Ashiona', Tarun Mazumdar-directed 'Palatak and 'Sreeman Prithviraj'. The 1964-Rajen Tarafdar film titled 'Jiban Kahini' is also expected to get restored soon. Work is currently on progress for Soumitra Chatterjee-starrer 'Ajona Sapath'.
However, restoration work of such films is a pain-staking job. One minute of a shot has at least 1500 frames. "Each frame has to be restored individually. On an average, restoring of a film requires Rs 4 lakh. We have 20 technicians working on three shifts. Yet, it takes more than a month to complete one film," said Sushanta Das, who is overseeing the project.
However, restoration of classics doesn't ensure huge dividends. "It's not financially very rewarding. But monetary rewards is not always the concern when we are dealing with cult films," said Akshay Tantia, who considers it his responsibility to preserve Bengal's culture.