Yash Raj's decision to impose logo 'watermarks' is quite regrettable and reprehensible. Specially, since we thought that they had listened to their customers and finally gotten rid of this obnoxious practise.

Title: Dil To Pagal Hai
Year: 1997
BD Release: 2010
IMDB Rating: 6.6
Category: Comedy | Musical | Drama | Romance
Distributor: YRF Home Entertainment
Authoring House: ?
MRP: Rs. 599/-
Running Time: 02:59:38 hrs
Chapters: 34
Media: Main Feature - 50GB BD
Region Coding: A/B/C
Video:
2.35:1, HD 1080p 16:9, AVC 24Hz
Peak Bitrate 39Mbps | Average bitrate 30Mbps
Audio:
1/2 Hindi - Dolby Digital 5.1 (48khz 384kbps)
2/2 Hindi - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48khz) <-- Default Track
Subtitles: <-- NOT 2.35:1 Screen Friendly (Positioned below the picture area)
1/2 English
2/2 Arabic
Special Features: Presented on separate DVD in 4x3 Standard Definition.
1. Scenes from the Filmfare Awards
2. The Making
3. TV Promos
4. Theatrical Trailer
5. Millenium Mix

Special Mention:
Watermark Logos are present, either at the begining, or the middle, of all songs. But not anywhere else in the movie. Also the logo 'watermark' is there only briefly for a few seconds.<-- With Yash Raj, it seems like "one step forward two steps back".
No scrolling advertisements during songs or otherwise. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.
No advertisements, forced or otherwise, during the movie. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.
Separate 'Song Menu' to allow direct selection of song. <-- This should be a no brainer for all Bollywood films.
The movie starts automatically after the staple FBI and Statuatory Warnings. <-- A feature that I have been championing, in most of my reviews.

Review:
Although, I found most of this film, to be quite juvenile in it's projection of love. I have still, always enjoyed it for several reasons. For one, Madhuri Dixit has never looked better and has certainly never been dressed better. Also, I quite like the songs of the movie, even though there is not one single song I'd classify as a 'classic'. After watching the film, after a gap of quite a few years, I think, it still holds up well enough.

As for the picture quality of this Blu-ray. This, to date, is definately the most difficult and frustrating Blu-ray, to rate and review. Difficult, because the picture quality is very inconsistent. Frustrating, because, one can clearly see, how it could have been so much better, if only the DNR demons had not been allowed to almost devour the film of it's sharpness and detail. There are times while watching, that I found myself thinking, for a 'thirteen' year old movie, this is pretty good and then the very next moment I would be thinking, what in the world happened to make the picture look so ordinary and plasticy. During one scene in the film, I commented out aloud, "Madhuri looks so artificial in this scene" and my 'eight' year old son, who was watching the fiilm with me, remarked, it looks like she is made of wax. I think that about sums up one of the major problems with the picture on this Blu-ray. The heavy usage of DNR has robbed the picture of sharpness and detail. There is also an issue in certain scenes, where the picture is quite out of focus, or atleast seems to be. Considering that 'Manmohan Singh' was one of the premier cinematographers of his time, I seriously doubt that the problem is in the original film and I can only conclude that once again, it is the work of the DNR demons. The colors too are very inconsistent and at times are quite dull and drab. But there are times when the colors actually look quite good. For the major part, the picture quality is decent enough, but then along come several portions where the picture looks very ordinary and at times even bad.

Regarding the audio I would like to clarify a few things to begin with. Yash Raj has the original audio stems, of the soundtrack of this movie. Thus, they could have actually remixed the sound if they cared enough, to be far better than what is delivered on this BD. Also, do keep in mind, that unlike 'DDLJ', which was released only in analog Dolby SR, this movie was originally released with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The sound mix, as it comes across on this Blu-ray, is better than 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' but then, that is not saying much and would be quite expected. The audio, during some of the songs, sounds very tinny and even shrill at times, further highlighted by the lack of bass. A perfect example being, the first song 'Ek Duje KE Vaaste' during the credits. Although, upon listening and comparing the songs in the movie with the original cd of the soundtrack, I realize that the CD itself, lacked depth and punch. In fact I remember always having been dissapointed with the very low amount of bass on the CD. Thus, keeping that in mind, I'd say the overall audio on this BD is satisfactory enough. But it just does not have the punch and depth that one expects from a film, which although thirteen yrs old, was made in the digital age.

Is this the unmitigated disaster that some of us thought it might be, ie. based on the posted screenshots? The answer is, definately not. Is it a "total let down"? Again, probably not. But, is it dissapointing? Most certainly, yes. This is one title, that I, as I am sure many others, have been looking forward to. Considering that this movie, is probably the last decent work of Yash Chopra himself. Not counting 'Veer Zaara', for, that in my opinion, was quite banal. Add to that, the huge success of the film and that it stars, two of the most successfull actors, of the last 25 yrs. It is but natural to expect, that 'YRF Home Entertainment' would have spared no efforts to make this BD, the best it could be. Alas, it is not to be and this remains far from what could have been a great BD if only 'Yash Raj' had given it the love and care it demanded. To make matters worse and to add to the disappoinment of the audio/video quality, 'Yash Raj' has regressed to their old ugly habit of putting their logo 'watermarks' during the songs. I only hope that this BD was authored prior to the last released 'two' BDs and it does not signal a permanent return to this obnoxious practise. All in all, I am dissapointed with this Blu-ray. But as we all know, this is probably the best we will get of this movie, atleast until the next new format is introduced. Thus for Madhuri fans and fans of this movie, I suggest we hold on to our copies. 'RECOMMENDED' but with caution.

Authoring screw ups:
1. In the song menu: The first song link, instead of taking you to the start of the song 'EK Duje Ke Vaaste' (Title sequence), it takes you all the way to the begining of the film, ie. all the way to the 'Censor Board' Certificate. This forces you to watch 1:54 minutes, of the 'censor board certificate', credits, Yash Raj films intro logo, the very boring and juvenile, banter about "what love is", between Shah Rukh & Madhuri, before the actual, 3:00 minute, song starts.
2. In the song menu, there is no option to access the second page of the song menu, by clicking left. Instead, one has to click the 'right' button, 'six' times, to access the second page. Similiarly, one cannot go to the first page, by clicking right, from the last (twelfth) song, either. Atleast, they are consistent in their logic, as consumer unfriendly as it might be.
3. In the song menu: Actually, there is no way to go from the second page to the first page of the song menu. For, once you click your way, to the second page of the song menu, even if you click left, to go back to the first page, it actually takes you to the first page of the 'Scenes' menu.

PS: Don't these people, even bother to view the 'check disc', before sending it for final production? It is frustrating to have to suffer through authoring errors, on almost 'all' Indian BDs, due to the ineptness or should I say, total disregard of professional obligations. Obviously, to these people, it's only about the money and they take absolutely no pride in their work.

My ratings:
Movie: 3.75 out of 5.0
Video: 3.4 out of 5.0
Audio: 3.5 out of 5.0
Extras: 3.75 out of 5.0
Overall: 3.25 out of 5.0 (Poor packaging keeps the score from being higher. Why can't 'YRF Home Entertainment' use the standard, double disc, slim Blu-ray cases that almost the entire BD world uses?)
The overall score reduced due to authoring issues, and even more importantly due to the presence of logo 'watermarks' during songs, albeit only for short durations, but they simply should not be there.



Screenshots courtesy DDR

Equipment used for testing:
Projector: Panasonic PT-AE2000U
Screen: Da-Lite 4:3 120" 'Model B' - White Matte
Viewing Distance: 11' 6"
A/V Receiver: Denon AVR5800
Speakers: 5.1
Front/Main: Paradigm Reference 100 v2
Center: Paradigm Reference Studio CC v2
Rear: Tannoy - Mercury M5
Subwoofer: Paradigm Reference Servo 15
BD Player:
Oppo BDP-83 (Hardware Modified 'Region Free' with 'BDP-83-48-1224' firmware)
PS3 (80GB US 'Region A' with firmware v3.30)

It's too bad the audio department is a let-down here, since this film had one of the better soundtracks of the late 90s period.

I will update tomorrow, with a more accurate verdict on the audio. Had to listen to the Blu-ray, at relatively low volumes and thus could not make a final judgement yet.

Why are there multiple threads on Dil To Pagal Hai (YRF) Screenshots (using the same screenshots)?

Thanks Sanjay.

Looks like same DVD master used here. How would u compare PQ vs DVD from YRF/SD original author.

I still remember there was a line in the print running over Krishma's face stepping down the stair, in Laegaii song that was never cleaned.

Again, for absolutely gorgeous soundtrack/music, yrf should recall and replace properly authored discs for fans though.

Thanks for your review:

BTW just saw you too have Paradigm stdio system along with Denon Receiver I have studio 60s and ADP/CC 450s plus studio rear in 7.1 too!

As dissaponting as the the Blu-ray might be, it is still a definite improvement from what I remember the crappy DVD to be.

No such issue on the Blu-ray. This is obviously a different master, or the line has been cleaned up for the Blu-ray.

watched this last night.. i thought the picture was pretty crap..

how on earth this movie won so much praise is beyond me.. its boring, overly long and just annoying.. the only good thing about this movie are the songs and madhuri...

I have finished my review and in the process I have also revised it a bit, specially with the audio score. Please accept my apologies for this revision, but due to reasons beyond my control I had earlier demoed the disc with incorrect/incomplete sound settings on my Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player. What happened is, that ever since the last firmware (BDP-83-50-0424) update, I was facing, freezing and stuttering problems on the Oppo, with some of the Indian BDs, including 'Dil To Pagal Hai', so I reverted back to the older firmware (BDP-83-48-1224). Before demoing the 'Dil To Pagal Hai' BD, as always, after reverting to the older firmware, I reset the player to 'factory settings' and then proceeded to set all my preferences, including the audio settings. It was only today, when I sat down to watch the entire movie, that I realized, for some reason the player had not retained the settings I had made. Thus, I then set all the options, including the audio settings again and then watched the movie. Due to the audio settings not being correct, specially settings related to the sub-woofer '+10 db' boost, the sound which was quite anemic earlier, was much better and fuller this time around. Once again, my apologies for any inconvenience caused.

PS: Even with the older firmware 'BDP-83-48-1224', there was still one or two places where there was a slight stutter. Yash Raj needs to send copies of their BDs to Oppo for them to fix these firmware issues.

Thanks! I am watching it on my Ps3 and Pioneer Elite 60 inch plasma and new Martin Logan sound system! What I am seeing in Laegaey Laegaey! is pretty enjoyable! Sound is clean! bringing the soundtrack alive! Color are vivid! Some lines are there though lol! I think it is 3rd or 4th entry there is a horizontal line!

It is nevertheless much improvement that I always liked the 2nd ANAMORPHIC SD version!

PS: I dont have BLURAY disc, I am streaming orig code o my PS3and sound is being decoded as PCM 5.1 full bitrate!

I must be going blind. Can you specify the the exact time, when the lines appear.

Just finished watching the BD. oh ...and btw, anyone still wondering whether the BD has hit shelves yet, its out now. I got mine from 'Landmark' store, Bangalore.

I really liked that feature. Can anyone confirm if this is the first yashraj BD with this feature ? What are the other non-yashraj BDs with this feature?

I completely argree with you 101% Sanjay. Infact reading your words, i actually realised this was my first natural reaction after finishing the BD. This is definitely not a problem with the original film and only a BD screw-up.

Just off Topic Snajay, not to agree or disagree with your pov, why would someone compare an Audio CD with DVD sound? when CD is encoded only in 2 channel and DVD in 5.1 (with a dedicated Bass Channel), is it fair to compare the two? Now on the other hand, if the platform is same i.e. Stereo DVD compared with CD, i dont think there are more than a handful of DVDs with proper stereo sound . Actually rite now, only DDLJ comes to mind from that aspect and even that ACD was poor in comparison to the channel separation of the Dolby SR movie. Not to mention there are Mono sounding Movies which strangely were accompanied by an extremely wide Stereo Channel separation in their sountracks of Audio CDs and Cassettes (Baazigar comes to mind). Just curious to know your approach to comparison.

Quite right you are. Although I find VZ quite superior to DTPH in terms of the 'story between songs' category (As oppposed to 'songs between story') that DTPH also falls in Jokes apart, I dont think Mr Yash Chopra actually gives a damn about the DVDs of his own directed films. This was so obvious from the VZ dvd itself which in my opinion is the worst yash Raj DVD ever- a film which according to many is his best work ever !!. What an irony Considering his age, atleast I expected his son Adi to take care of this matter for his own films but even DDLJ got one of the worst treatments on the DVD.... Thank God now that the BD is atleast 'quite watchable' if not listen-able atleast.

Well thats the only reason I bought my copy. For the fans of the film like me, anything better than the DVD is what seems to be the only option available .

Great observation there man!!

I also felt something is wrong with the color of the BD and I am not refering to the little oversaturation. But even after enough thought, I am unable to pinpoint exactly what is that. In some scenes, the colours are too beautiful but in others, they are too good to be natural and to be in the same league with the scenes preceding. Perhaps this has to do with the age of the film or the way it was shot but i am not sure. I also feel that possibly a filter is applied because for some strange reason, it reminds me of the first non-anamorphic DVD of YRF which had a red filter applied. Can anyone confirm if this DVD does not have a color filter and is only oversaturated a bit?

Oh and Btw, I am extremely happy with the contrast levels of the BD. Its amazing to watch the song 'Dholna' in all its glory as it does not have a harh sunlight but mostly cloudy weather that required a perfect contrast level to replicate the magic and it works its way on the BD.

Another reason for disappointment was still there is no 'Play All' songs option on BD . I really wanted this film to have that option.

Now this is may be only for me cribbing on this issue but I do not like the idea of replacing the old yashraj Logo with the new one when the movie begins. The Circular Logo at the begining of DDLJ that said 'Silver Jubile Year' is now gone on BD and the first time YRF invented the twirling yellow logo for DTPH is gone on this BD. These logs for some reason gives a nostalgic feel to the film and I really liked them on the DVD. Now I am curious have they really done it on Kabhi Kabhi and Sisila as well?

....Oh To be clearer and safer before any member bashes me up, I am not talking above about the watermark Logo. I am extremely against watermarks of any kind and any duration like the majority here for the simple reason that once I dim the lights in my HT and hit play , thats the only thing that remind me that its a software inside a piece of equipment thats playing and brings me back to reality from the world of story I was travelling in. The whole idea of having the clearest possible picture and sound that can take you there within the film is nullified by the watermark logo. Keep mentioning about this in every review Sanjay, and I am sure one day, 'Hum Honge kamyaab' Two thumbs up for your review .

Actually, both the latest 'YRF' Blu-ray releases, namely 'Dil To Pagal Hai' and 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna' are authored for the movie to automatically start. None of the prior releases from 'Yash Raj' have been authored this way, so let's hope this is the new standard for them.
Actually, my intention was not to compare the BD with the audio CD of the soundtrack and the only thing reason I did refer to it is, was to have a reference point, to the original sound mix, preferred by the music director and the sound engineer. The 'punch' in the bass that I found lacking in the BD, is also lacking in the audio CD. Which indicates, that is how 'Uttam Singh' wanted it to be, unless the sound engineer just did a poor job. This is not say, that if Yash Raj wanted, they could not have gone back, to the original audio, multiple tracks, and remixed the songs to take advantage of the advancements in techonolgy. By the way, 'Baazigar' was released in 'mono' only, thus obviously it would never sound anything like the audio cd. In fact, 'Dilwale Dulhaniya LE Jayenge' was the first 'Yash Raj' movie to be released with multichannel sound, Dolby SR to be more precise. 'Dil To Pagal Hai' being their first release in digital multichannel sound, ie. Doby Digital.
Considering that there are 'Twelve' songs, it sure would have been nice to have this feature. Based on what I have been told by atleast one authoring house, most authoring softwares do not have the ability to provide this future. Sounds quite unbelievable to me, but that's what I have been told. Which is why, the only way for them to provide this feature, would be to have all the songs, presented twice and also encoded as a seperate title on the BD. This is the method, that has been used by the 'authorers' of the 'T-Series' Don BD. Which explains why, when you select a link from the 'song menu', it takes you to a different 'video stream' than the main feature and also why, when you select a particular song, it continues to play the rest of the songs that come after that one.

I'll check it out! again, but may be my old eyes playing tricks on me lol

Ok some more comments on further viewing of BD...

The disapoitment as a BD apart, the framing is definitely better than the DVD. there is more picture visible on all 4 sides Top bottom, left and right end of the frame.

The extras disc is of horrible quality. Its exactly the same 2nd disc that came with the 2 disc DVD edition from YRF as one can figure out from the initial adverts that have not been updated. On a minor note, the same extras with the movie on the first non-anamorphic DVD are in a better SD quality than they are on this stand alone disc(I have that non-anamorphic disc and re-checked it myself). The whole point is, if YRF is providing extras, the least they could do is provide the better of the available quality otherwise I am better off without the extras at all.

One irritating aspect in the picture quality of the movie BD is that the focus problem is not just with some particular scenes but also in some scenes what happens is that within the same moving shot (without camera change), the focus gets removed momentarily from the faces of actors and keeps coming back time and again. If the entire one shot is out of focus, a viewer can somehow deal with it but Its definitely a pain for the human eye to get adjusted to such a distraction when trying to observe facial expressions of actors.

I didn't enjoy this movie much. I don't find any reason of it being super hit. But i really enjoyed its songs. all the songs are good..