The film was actually presented in an original aspect ratio of 2.55:1 (Indian cinemascope) but the DVD is cropped to a 2.45:1 within a 2.35:1 widescreen frame as seen in the link below (mind you best have a fast modem as these screen shots can take ages to view)

Click Below ------>
Lagaan picture comparison

Picture A is from the original CT DVD and look slightly horizontally squashed, yet still cropping of the picture can be seen on the right side of the frame.

Picture B from from the pirate version is a 2.45:1 non-anamorphic widescreen version, so some cropping is still evident (on the left side of the picture).

Its not really a complant, but hopefully the CT PAL region 2 version will re-frame the picture more accurately so the actors don't look too thin, and that cropping wouldn't be such an issue.

Sunny you might want to re-edit them links - it shows your password on the FTP!

Ali

I've mirrored the shots locally;





Ali

Too shocking how many still get aspect ratios wrong. I don’t have the Lagaan DVD to hand - but both them screen shots look wrong.

Lagaan was definitely never in 2.55:1. The bottom screen shot is incorrectly captured @ 720x480, 1.50:1 when it should be 1.33:1 for what is a non-anamorphic transfer.

I'll get back to the top screen shot when I get hold of the Lagaan DVD.

Ali :doze:

Hey, that's funny, I don't remember such scene in the film where all 11 of them stand together as posed in the screenshots. Could someone please update my memory :sleep:

Hi Sunny,

1) It is the pirate version (Bottom Screen Cap in your post), that is vertically squashed. Circles are needed to detect squashed picture. Luckily, there are lots of large circles in LAGAAN. A few minutes of scanning and I found many instances of circles in the picture (many a times, you are lucky to get even one circle in the whole movie; e.g. RANGEELA). I used “Camera close up scene”, in the beginning of the movie, directly in front of the cinematographer’s camera. It is a perfect circle on my TV, within the measurement uncertainty.

2) The two pictures are not panned exactly the same. CT LAGAAN shows more on the left, pirate shows more on the right. The difference is not due to cropping but due to panning. There always is slightly smaller aperture in the projector than the full film frame.

Rana

P.S.
Big circle from the coin, rolling on to the map of India, in the starting LAGAAN title can not be used to check squashed picture as the shot is not taken directly from top. Even in this shot, the coin is almost a circle.



Edited By rana on Feb. 11 2002 at 18:02

Actually there is no proper comparison here at all since the pirate dvd is a little squashed and captured in non-anarmorphic. The CT dvd seems to be cropped but it is very minor.

I am not sure whether we can call it cropping. As the projector apperture is a tiny bit smaller than the film,the two frames are panned differently but cover the same amount of width. One frame shows more on the left and the other frame shows more on the right.

Rana



Edited By rana on Feb. 13 2002 at 17:23