Finally the much awaited 1961 trendsetter of Indian movie is getting released this week.



http://dvdunlimitedonline.com/shop/prod ... ts_id=2659

Bollywood spent nearly 1 year to create the DVD because the original 35 MM was damaged during certain part of the movie and they have to enhance the picture quality from the available VHS. Priced little higher than the usual Bollywood DVD due to this reason, but a must buy for all movie lovers.

I have also read in some site that it is the first Color movie in India, but I am not sure.

According to this thread: Click Here.



and..



.. this was suppose to be an excellent transfer of the movie instead we are getting a more expensive DVD that is an enhanced VHS version and that will probably rot down the road?

Not your fault DU, thanks for the info, but after a year and a half this news kinda sucks for Junglee fans.

May be, what dvdunlimited said is that only the portion damaged in 35mm film is from VHS source and the rest is from film??

Yes only a portion of the film between 10 to 15 minutes. Rest of them are direct transfer from 35 mm film.

BTW was it the first color indian (hindi) movie?

The first hindi color movie is Aan (1952) starring Dilip Kumar, Nimmi & Nadira, directed by Mehboob Khan (Mother India fame).

Other early color films from the 50s are:

Zabak, Mother India, UnguliMala, JJPB (I'm sure you all know this one), --------??

The first Indian colour movie was 'Jhansi Ki Rani' that was released in 1952 (before Aan). It was directed by Sohrab Modi. Prior to this V Shantaram released Shakuntala in 1943 that was shot in Black and White but was artificially coloured by hand.

Until the release of Junglee filiming in colour was reserved for big budget period or mythological dramas. Junglee was the first 'light' movie to be shot totally in colour.

Though Sairandhri was the first colour film from india, its seems the official vote goes to Ardeshir Irani's Kisan Kanya (1937)

http://www.indiaheritage.com/perform/ci ... /irani.htm

BTW - when in chennai couple of months back i got a chance to see Raja Harishchandra (India's first full-length feature film , 1913) at special screening held at Satyam Theaters courtesy of the Film Archives of India - boy what a delight that was . The print was damaged but i wish efforts would be put into it to restore and release a Silent Boxset of indian films on DVD - oh, the things i wish for

A short history behind the DVD. The DVD was produced directly from 35 mm film for better quality. However there were about 11 minutes of the 35 film which were completely lost. So these portions of the DVD were copied from available VHS tapes.

Chapter 17 - 10 minutes of VHS transfer quality
Chapter 20 - 32 seconds of VHS transfer quality

I posting few screenshots here. Couple of them from the 11 minute VHS transfer also, but the rest of the movie was very good.





From Chapter 17




From Chapter 20

Hey thanks DU! Its not as bad as I thought ..

The 35mm shots are upto the old DEI standard. I'd prefer not to have those VHS segments, of course, but its better than cutting the scenes altogether.

The first VHS transfer was for 10 minutes and the second one only for 32 second. Its good that they had these two VHS in seperate chapters.

Well, it should be good for people who previously were not happy with extensive cut in the film..atleast you will have continuity!

Does anyone have the channel 4 TV recording of Junglee in the UK?
Maybe that has better quality scenes of those inserted VHS segments.
(make our own DVD?)

DVD out of Ch 4 VHS recording will be better if you keep it in PAL.