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Staring: Aamir
Khan, Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley, Paul Blackthorne and Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Director: Ashutosh
Gowariker
Producer: Aamir
Khan
Music: A. R. Rahman
Running time:
225 minutes
Year: 2001 (cinema),
2002 (DVD)
DVD: Single sided
dual layered
Release
by: Colombia Tristar
Alternate versions: Region
2 PAL DVD expected in March or May 2002, rumoured
to be a dual disc, but no official details available as yet
Extras:
- one deleted scene
- filmographies, production notes
- weblinks
Video:
Aspect ratio:
2.35:1
Anamorphic enhanced:
Yes
Format: NTSC,
Region 1 encoded
Source:
8/10 Artifacts:
6/10 Sharpness:
7/10 Colour:
8/10 Contrast:
7/10
Comment: minor
speckles and sings of wear and tear noticeable, but other than that
the video is from a very good progressive source showing good detail
and sharpness with vibrant colours. Slight edge enhancement and compressions
problems noticeable - not too much of a problem. Bit rate varies loads
from over 8mb/sec to under 1mb/sec, averages 4.2mb/sec. Ideally with
such a extensive running time two dual discs would have been preferred
for optimal video and audio experience.
Audio:
Language/Formats:
Hindi Dolby Digital 5.1, Hindi Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Subtitles: English,
Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Thai (including songs
in all languages)
Source:
9/10 Clarity:
9/10
Comment:
aggressive DD5.1 sound track together with 2 channel surround, excellent
and one of best on any Indian DVD
Overall DVD rating:
8/10
- it might not stand up to comparison with Colombia Tristar R1
Hollywood films but this Lagaan DVD stands head and shoulders above most
if not all other Indian DVDs releases so far
Links:
- Official
movie site
- Internet
Movie Database info
- Forums threads:
- Lagaan DVD OUT!
- Columbia
Tristar confirms Lagaan dvd
- Lagaan dvd is being
released on 22nd January, 2002
- Exculsive news on Lagaan,
DEI & EVP DVD's
- Lagaan pirate
- Lagaan Oscar Nominated...
- Experiences with
non-Indians and Lagaan
- Film reviews:
- Planet
Bollywood
- Rediff
- BBC
- India
FM
Other DVD reviews:
The DVD of "Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001)" is to
the best of my knowledge the first DVD of a Bollywood film that has been
released on a high quality Western label: Columbia-Tristar.
They picked one of the best Bollywood films of 2001 for their Indian
debut, India's official entry for the Oscar for best foreign language
film of 2001. So how does this film look, especially compared to other
Indian DVDs? Quantum leap?
The film master used is in pretty good shape for an Indian film, but
can't compare with the (almost) mint quality of a master film element
of a new Hollywood film. There are quite some speckles around and other
little blemishes, and occasionally stubborn scratches are visible for
several seconds. Film steadiness is ok.
Color and contrast rendition are very good. The DVD looks like the film
looked in theaters. Cinematography is mostly high quality and many a scene
is a feast for the eye. Image sharpness is fair and certainly below average
for Columbia/Tristar DVDs. There are two main reasons.
The film and some deleted footage in the supplements are 240 minutes
long. All of this is squeezed into two layers resulting in an average
bit rate about 4 Mbit/s. Such a bit rate can not support very sharp images.
Consequently the transfer has been low pass filtered to remove the highest
frequencies and reduce sharpness somewhat. In addition there is too much
film grain and noise for this bit rate, so the transfer has been digitally
noise reduced. That reduces sharpness even more.
Concerning video artifacts we have a layer of minor noise reduction artifacts
due to the noise processing, there is edge enhancement visible on many
occasions (the usual haloes around edges) and we have quite some aliasing
and moiré in textures and objects with straight lines (such as
the roof on the main building during the cricket match). The latter is
rather unusual for a Columbia/Tristar DVD and makes me wonder if the usual
HD transfer was made for this film or not.
Compression is certainly good for the bit budget available, but you can
not compress "Lagaan" at high quality with 4 Mbit/s average.
Compression artifacts are visible most of the time. Fast pans show some
blocking. There's a veil of compression noise over most shots. The decision
to save money and not give the film the treatment other films of this
length got (Cleopatra (1963), Lawrence of Arabia (1962)) takes quite a
toll here. What's needed is a Superbit edition of this film with double
the bit rate and a DTS track!
The DD 5.1 track is very good, though. The best track I have heard from
any Indian DVD so far. There is amazing deep bass available at times.
Two examples: The first song (the rain song) shakes your room when your
HiFi can handle the bass, and when the an gry Sikh enters the picture
again the room is shaking. The missing song menu is a bad slip, though
and unmasks Columbia/Tristar as a Bollywood rookie.
Overall this Indian debut DVD of Columbia/Tristar is a mixed bag. For
Columbia/Tristar it's a below average effort, hampered by a low bit rate
and filtering issues. The problems are easily visible on larger screens.
But nonetheless this is a good looking DVD that will most certainly please
on any kind of display. The shortcomings are not crass and when watched
on smaller screens from several screen heights away the result is more
than satisfactory. The sound is first rate and the overall effect of many
scenes, especially the dance numbers is gorgeous, a feast for the eye
and ears. While the DVD is neither reference quality nor excellent it's
among the 10 best Indian DVDs on the market and about in the same league
as the best DEI stuff. It's sure to make an impression. Recommended. If
this one sells well there might be more coming (Mission Kashmir...), so
buy it if you like the film.
- by Michel Hafner, fuller review and ratings on the IMDB
Screen shots:
DVD main menu
DVD chapter
special features menu
what he say?
triple tax
the prayer
dumb and dumber
the kings stance
most dark scnese are OK, other lack detail
fast motion, blurry detail
rain?
disco-tech?
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