Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak & Aparna Sen

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brunosh
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 5:47 am
Location: London

Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak & Aparna Sen

#26 Post by brunosh » Thu Aug 03, 2006 9:09 am

Mr and Mrs Iyer by Aparna Sen (Tip Top Video - a name like that never augurs well!): technically adequate video, perfectly watchable, and I'd say much the same about the film, with good central performances, and interesting not lastingly traumatised, largely uncondemnatory and almost resigned reactions to some shocking background events.

Charulata by Satyajit Ray (Bollywood Entertainment): Gary at Beaver is right about how mediocre the video is but doesn't mention that the audio is worse. If I hadn't seen this wonderful film a couple of times before, I would have struggled on with it, but I gave up after 15 minutes and can only hope that a better release is forthcoming.

Satya by Ramgopal Verma (Eros): I can't say anything about the film due to the, for me, almost unwatchable quality of video - I lasted less than 5 minutes.

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franco
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 7:32 pm
Location: Vancouver

#27 Post by franco » Tue Nov 07, 2006 9:36 pm

Now I have a question regarding Mr. and Mrs. Iyer for those of you who have seen it: is there indeed a montage of newspaper headlines before the opening credits? The montage and the following voice-over seem so incompatible with Aparna Sen's style that I think they could have been added by the studio; perhaps in order to put the audience in the right context?

The movie, however, is simply a masterpiece. What took me so long to watch it?

acquarello
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#28 Post by acquarello » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:48 am

Whoo hoo! Calcuttaweb is now listing one of Mrinal Sen's best films, Ekdin Pratidin for sale with English subtitles (fifth film down on the page). This is the first film of his Absence trilogy, which explores the tenuousness of middle class values through the unexpected absence of a person within the household. In Ekdin Pratidin, it's the single daughter who doesn't come home from work, and how that absence serves as both fodder for neighborhood gossip and a reflection of their own declining status and neediness.

From watching Ekdin Pratidin and also Kharij (the second film in the trilogy), I've gotten a lot better sense of why Ritwik Ghatak regards the Bengali middle class (and in particular, their self-involvement) so critically in the advent of the Partition. There's something of a kindred spirit between Ghatak's The Cloud Capped Star and Sen's Ekdin Pratidin, much more so than the other two films in the trilogy.

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franco
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 7:32 pm
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#29 Post by franco » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:32 pm

Wow, thanks acquarello! Best news for me so far this year. I stopped checking that site after giving up hope that more Mrinal Sen would be released.

acquarello
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#30 Post by acquarello » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:09 am

Some good news and bad news on the Angel DVD of Mrinal Sen's Ek Din Pratidin. The good news is that it does indeed have English subtitles. The bad news is that the image isn't sharp and colors are fairly degraded that it almost looks as though it's in sepia. Another annoying thing is that the Angel logo remains throughout the whole film, and isn't even just an intermittent pop-up.

I've posted some screenshots on Flickr as a sample (large format individual shots: 1, 2, 3).

tired_of_hollywood

#31 Post by tired_of_hollywood » Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:33 am

calcuttaweb.com now offers two more Mrinal Sen films: Calcutta 71, and, Interview. I have to admit that as a film I found Calcutta71 is little dark film. I have not seen these DVDs yet, so cant comment on quality.

kunalsen

Re: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen

#32 Post by kunalsen » Mon Jan 05, 2009 5:44 pm

I came across the discussion here about availability of Bengali films. I want to share that I have had excellent experience with another Calcutta based online store called Induna (http://www.induna.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). I have ordered from them before, and I recently got a number of Mrinal Sen films from them. They came very promptly, and their service was very professional, including regular status updates on my order.

Regarding Mrinal Sen DVD (who happens to be my father), many of them have English subtitles, and as far as I know, they were created out of original film prints. So the quality in most cases reflect the state of the original negative/print. Unfortunately the negatives of most of his films are either in very bad shape or are completely lost. We are trying to get them digitally restored, but it is a very expensive process. Since they have little commercial value, it is hard to convince anyone to pay for it. The DVDs of Kharij, Ek Din Pratidin were reasonable. The Calcutta trilogy (Interview, Calcutta 71, and Padatik), on the other hand, were rather poor. I just watched Aakash Kusum, where the sound is so poor that it is hard to understand. I still try to collect them because in the long run that's all that we may ever have.

kekid
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:55 pm

Re: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen

#33 Post by kekid » Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:39 pm

Kunalsen, welcome to the forum, and thank you for the information. Please keep us posted on new developments in this area.

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JacquesQ
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:14 am
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Re: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen

#34 Post by JacquesQ » Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:17 am

kunalsen wrote:I came across the discussion here about availability of Bengali films. I want to share that I have had excellent experience with another Calcutta based online store called Induna (http://www.induna.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). I have ordered from them before, and I recently got a number of Mrinal Sen films from them. They came very promptly, and their service was very professional, including regular status updates on my order.
I fully agree about all that. BUT one slight problem should be mentioned - well, possibly it isn't a problem for American customers, but I can tell you it is for European ones. Induna will systematically ship their international orders with DHL, which does indeed ensure that they will reach your home within a few days ; and the amount you pay for the service is tolerable though comparatively high (I think it is $11.49 per order + $1.49 per DVD - acceptable, yet many other Indian online shops ship for free or close to it) ; but (and here's the real BUT) DHL's policy is to SYSTEMATICALLY collect VAT upon arrival (ie they won't deliver the goods unless you pay the VAT), while, with "standard" postal services, you only pay for the rare items the customs services will randomly decide to check (ie nearly never for small packages containing but a few DVDs). Net result : depending on your country and its VAT rate, expect to pay an additional 15-20% before actually having your DVDs...

An additional problem, but not specific to Induna : beware, the "Eagle Video" DVD of Satyajit Ray's "Ghare Baire", in spite of what most sites say (and what the DVD box itself says), has NO subtitles at all.

Wittsdream
Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:00 pm
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Re: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen

#35 Post by Wittsdream » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:03 pm

JacquesQ wrote:An additional problem, but not specific to Induna : beware, the "Eagle Video" DVD of Satyajit Ray's "Ghare Baire", in spite of what most sites say (and what the DVD box itself says), has NO subtitles at all.
While the print used definitely leaves a lot to be desired, the "Eagle Home Entertainment" DVD of Ray's "Ghare Baire/Home and the World" definitely has English subtitles for the passages spoken in Bengali. They activate using VLC player on my computer as well as my Momitsu all-region DVD player. Not sure why you can't access the subtitle sub-menu, but they are definitely there!

mteller
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:23 pm

Re: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen

#36 Post by mteller » Sat May 09, 2009 2:12 am

I got a selection of Ray DVDs by different producers from Induna (shipping is expensive, but the prices are low), including Eagle's Ghare-Baire. There were no subtitles (or "subtittles", as the cover says), either on my PC or on my PS3.

As for the others, here's my take:

Charulata
BIG HOME VIDEO

There are no extras whatsoever, but it does come very nicely packaged with a slipcover, and a glossy booklet featuring a lot of original press material. The (non-removeable) subtitles are fair... not as comprehensive as the UK Artificial Eye disc (for various reasons, I don't want to get an all-region player), but without any glaring flaws or inaccuracies. The print is a little rough around the edges, but the transfer is generally clean... except for an odd horizontal video glitch near the bottom. There's also a studio logo in the upper right corner which is distracting despite being semi-transparent. The audio is sometimes scratchy, but not too bad.

Kapurush/Mahapurush
RE

RE competes with Big Home Video on a number of Ray's best films. Which is unfortunate, because the two companies have opposite strengths and weaknesses. This print is quite battered, and the audio gets really rough at times... however, there's no annoying studio logo and no video glitches. The subtitles are lousy with the kind of broken English you usually see on import discs... but they are removeable, and they do seem to be more complete (except that damn note at the end is still untranslated, but at least a translation appears in the plot summary on the case). No fancy case or booklet, just a narrow cardboard folder-style case. On the other hand, with my ever-dwindling shelf space, I do appreciate the slimmer case. I'd say I'm leaning towards RE... the lack of a distracting logo on the screen makes a big difference.

Jalsaghar
ANGEL VIDEO

Probably any Ray fan who knows their way around a torrent site is familiar with Angel because of their damn onscreen logo. And yep, it's on here. The print also looked lousy, and the audio sounded like it was being filtered through someone's butt. The subtitles are a mixed bag: removeable and they seemed reasonably complete and accurate... but quite a number of typos and sometimes they flashed by too quickly. The case is flimsy, but again it's slim, which I like.

Pratidwandi
SHRADHA HOME VIDEO

A very good disc compared to the others. Which is too bad, because Shradha Home Video only produces two other Ray films. Slim, flimsy case with no extras, but the print generally looked pretty good. Some occasional noise, but pretty sharp. The removable subtitles have some typos and bad English, but seemed to be quite complete and accurate. There is a studio logo in the upper left, and it even has red in it which is quite distracting... but it only appears every 10 minutes, for about 15 seconds.

Shatranj Ke Khalini
SHEMAROO

Slim Amaray-style case, with a horrible cover design. No extras except some promos (including a 2.5 minute non-skippable promo before the film starts). Otherwise, quite nice... print quality is excellent, no studio bug, decent subtitles. Unfortunately, this is the only Ray film they do.

So based on these experiences, and the Ray films I'm most fond of, I've decided to order:

Aranyer Dinrati (Shradha)
Ashani Sanket (Angel)
Devi (RE)
Jana Aranya (Shradha)
Mahanagar (RE)
Nayak (RE)
Seemabaddha (Angel)
Sonar Kella (Angel)

Also have to pick up Pakeezah (Shemaroo)... even though it's apparently the wrong aspect ratio, I just love the film so much.

Teen Kanya is released by both Big Home Video and RE, but Induna doesn't have the RE and CalcuttaWeb is sold out. Gonna wait and see if they get more in stock. CalcuttaWeb also has a Sonar Kella by "Biswas", but I don't know anything about them. Biswas also does a Ghatak film I'm fond of (Jukti, Takko aar Gappo).

And speaking of Ghatak, I take it from this thread that the MAX releases are crap? I might have to get them anyway, at least Meghe Dhaka Tara and Subarnarekha

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Peacock
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Re: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen

#37 Post by Peacock » Sat May 09, 2009 11:46 am

mteller wrote:And speaking of Ghatak, I take it from this thread that the MAX releases are crap? I might have to get them anyway, at least Meghe Dhaka Tara and Subarnarekha
Get the bfi for "Meghe Dhaka Tara", if you don't want to buy a multiregion player just make your player multiregion by typing the code thing in. I don't understand why anyone would remain region-locked.

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jsteffe
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:00 am
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Re: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen

#38 Post by jsteffe » Sun May 10, 2009 1:59 pm

Peacock wrote:
mteller wrote:And speaking of Ghatak, I take it from this thread that the MAX releases are crap? I might have to get them anyway, at least Meghe Dhaka Tara and Subarnarekha
Get the bfi for "Meghe Dhaka Tara", if you don't want to buy a multiregion player just make your player multiregion by typing the code thing in. I don't understand why anyone would remain region-locked.
Actually, the BFI DVDs of The Cloud-Capped Star and A River Called Titas are both NTSC, Region 0. I own them, and the reviews I've come across indicate the same thing. But you should still consider a multiregion player for other things.

mteller
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:23 pm

Re: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak & Aparna Sen

#39 Post by mteller » Sun May 10, 2009 5:44 pm

Thanks for the info, I didn't know that about the BFI. Not a huge fan of River Called Titas, but I might grab that one too.

I have my reasons for not going multi-region. They'd probably sound trivial to you, but they matter to me.

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FerdinandGriffon
Joined: Wed Nov 26, 2008 11:16 am

Re: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak & Aparna Sen

#40 Post by FerdinandGriffon » Sun May 10, 2009 6:04 pm

mteller wrote:I have my reasons for not going multi-region. They'd probably sound trivial to you, but they matter to me.
Just curious, but what would these be?

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Sanjuro
Joined: Fri Nov 03, 2006 1:37 am
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Re: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak & Aparna Sen

#41 Post by Sanjuro » Sun May 10, 2009 10:36 pm

One of my favourite players that I've had for a while now seems to have no region unlocking remote control code thing, although I check the lists every year or so. Personally I just have two players under the TV, but I imagine for some people this isn't an option. And back to Ghatak...

ptmd
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:12 pm

Re: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak & Aparna Sen

#42 Post by ptmd » Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:54 am

For those in the New York-New Haven-Boston area, a number of extremely rare parallel/New Wave cinema films will be shown at Yale University the weekend of February 5th. These are the best 35mm prints that exist for each of these films and it should be a really special event. This is entirely free and open to the public, so please feel free to mention this elsewhere and PM me with any questions about logistics, etc.:

http://www.yale.edu/filmstudiesprogram/ ... e_Home.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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