I bought the "Ghost World" DVD today, and it has, as an extra, the song (or a clip from the song) "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" from the movie "Gumnaam." It was framed at 1.85:1, and the composition looked perfectly framed. I wish I could post screenshots, but I don't have a DVD-ROM drive.

I've often found that Hindi 1.33:1 films from the 60s and 70s had a little too much headroom and would probably look better at around 1.85:1. Is this how most of these older films should be shown? I've also seen a few 1.33:1 films (on video) from the 80s, and it would surprise me if 1.33:1 was still used that recently. I don't have a 16:9 TV, so could those of you out there with 16:9 TVs zoom into 60s-70s era 1.33:1 Hindi DVDs and test my theory?

PS: See "Ghost World." It is one of 2001's best films.

Ghostworld is a decent film, saw it on cinema recently. Much better then the overblown Ron Howard film "A Beautiful Mind" (Russell crowe looked awful in that wig!). Can't believe he won best actor at the BAFTA's!

I prefer if films are presented in the ratio as intented by the director or DOP.

Can anyone here help me locate a copy of this DVD? IndiaWeekly says it's sold out. I would love to have a copy to show my girlfriend and her sisters. They all half-Indian and would get a kick out of it.

I'm in Northern CA--so any Brick and Morter or website would be greatly appreciated!!

THANKS

Gumnaam is available at Indiaplaza for $16.99 (too much) & at DEI for $11.99. My suggestion wait until this title becomes available at Indiaweekly. By the way this is one of the better masla thrillers from Bollywood,pretty entertaining and with some really good tunes.

lakeshore

I'm not questioning the original aspect ratio. I'm just questioning whether the original aspect ratio is being presented on these DVDs of older films. Since I doubt that the directors or cinematographers were involved in any video transfers of many of these old movies, I'm wondering whether the transfers are incorrectly shown with the mattes lifted.

The clip from "Gumnaam" did not look overly cropped. In fact, it looked good at 1.85:1, leading me to believe that maybe this particular film and possibly others were framed and projected at or around 1.85:1. Since such a thing really wouldn't have required new lenses for shooting or projection, as CinemaScope did, it is possible Indian producers shot at least a few films with 1.85:1 in mind. Again, I've found that many old Hindi films look like they should have been matted down a bit, maybe if not 1.85:1, 1.66:1.

You will see the importance of Original Aspect Ratio in Zanjeer. Cropped from top and bottom, ERO-DEI 1.85:1 Zanjeer, is totally unwatchable.

-You will be annoyed at each and every scene.

-You see Supporting cast covered by black bars in the titles.

-You will not see the intended main object in the scene (Children"s dead bodies) that the director intended to show.

-You will see the face delivering dialouges but the lips are covered by black bars.

-Police is in hot pursuit chasing criminals. Police and criminals both are covered by black bars. You see tree tops (even tree tops are covered by the top black bar) instead.

And thousands other annoyances.

I compared all this from my old 1.33:1 VHS.

Rana