Well, it seems the Spark versions are already out of print and UK distributor Bollywood Films have now released their own set of Guru Dutt DVDs...




So far, the only one I've checked out is Pyaasa and it looks to be the best version released to date. It's far from perfect (the usual field-averaged PAL to NTSC, pseudo-5.1), but contrast and sharpness are much better than the previous crop. The audio is also vastly superior - very clear with only mild distortion. I've taken screenshots to compare with DVD Beaver's YRF/Eros comparison...

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Nice comparison shots, thanks Stephen

Ali

No probs.

Thank you so much Stephen 'Bollywood Films' seems like a improvement but not by much or am i wrong (please say yes) and is this worth a double-dip ?

Hey Zulmis,
As we are talking about film restoration and holding of copyrights, I have got an idea.
First of all we need someone who know's where we can find the negatives and need some contacts at the same time. So its better to get hold of some dvd makers as they have some experience of getting copyrights of the movie.
I am not into any camp and I would suggest BEI or Prasad/ Idream for this work. There work (BEI) on Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam was appreciable. The Idea of choosing them is atleast they care of or cared of quality at some point of time.
what my idea is to contact this company and get the right contact through them to get hold of copyright and then use the expertise of some of our zulmis to get it restored and have a clean transfer.
In doing this the Zulmis who are interested in dishing out funds will be readily happy to do so. As they will be more confident in knowing the negatives are into the right hands.

This will be the third time I would buy it ... but please could someone let me know where I can order these new Guru Dutt DVDs from?

Thanks!!!

Sorry for the late reply. It's not a vast improvement (some scenes are too dark and there's a lot of dot crawl), but it's certainly more easy on the eye than the horrible YRF/Eros DVDs. As I mentioned, the sound in particular is much better - even clearer than on the soundtrack CD.



They're all available from Tesco.com.

Grrrrrrrrrreat! I might just get the lot - although I have just moved to the US so it'll be a while before I can get my hands on them!

I could not resist an urge to look into my Eros DVD again. Big mistake. That barely VHS quality DVD abomination forced me to quit within minutes.
I need a proper HD transfer of this film. PLEASE!

It'a amazing isn't it ... how a crappy DVD can ruin a fantastic film. Right now the only Guru Dutt movie I can watch is Sahab Bibi aur Ghulam. Both Guru Dutt and Bimal Roy are my fave directors and the DVDs of their movies are amongst some of the worst produced.

Reading through this thread is opening up too many old wounds!!!

I wonder if someone like Excel / UTV would pick up some of these movies and do the necessary?

Where can we order the Bollywood Films DVD?

IndiaWeekly.com are selling it now.

IW also has a Bollywood Films version of Kaagaz Ke Phool. Is it in widescreen, pan-and-scan, or the 1.37:1 version? I believe it was shot in both CinemaScope and standard Academy aspect ratios.

REGION All
CASE Keep Case
DISTRIBUTOR Moserbaer-Ultra
VIDEO FORMAT (ntsc/pal), AR, and WHETHER ANAMORPHIC NTSC Full Screen 4:3
AUDIO 5.1 track
SUBTITLES English
RUNTIME 140 mins
EXTRAS None

I have the ultra DVD that's all I could find - what a sweet sweet movie!