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Film

Restored ‘Pyaasa’ will be screened at Jio MAMI this year

Mumbai-based company Ultra has restored the yesteryear classic and will present the new print in Mumbai film festival next month.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Pyaasa, a 1957 cult classic, will be screened in the restored section at the 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in Mumbai on November 1 and 3. The film will be screened at PVR ECX, Andheri and PVR, Phoenix Lower Parel respectively.

The ‘Restored classics section’ in Jio MAMI this year will screen six more films. This particular section has evoked a lot of interest amongst the festival goers and common public in general.

Produced and directed by Guru Dutt, this classic features an ensemble star cast comprising Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Mala Sinha, Johnny Walker, Rehman, Mehmood, Tun Tun etc. The movie boasts of one of the best musical scores put together by SD Burman, Sahir Ludhianvi, Mohammed Rafi, Geeta Dutt and Hemant Kumar, featuring such evergreen songs as ‘Jaane Woh Kaise Log’, ‘Yeh Duniya Agar Mil’ and ‘Jaane Kya Tune Kahi’.

The film was restored by Ultra which will also re-release the film theatrically worldwide after MAMI.

How Pyaasa was restored

The most challenging part in restoring Pyaasa was sourcing the authentic materials to complete the preservation. After much effort, Ultra found the original camera negatives of the film at an archive in India; however a lot of the parts of the negatives were either damaged or lost.

They decided to use as many parts as possible from the original camera negatives and a few parts were used from 35 mm prints. A new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on the ARRISCAN film scanner. This in-house technology helped in applying a multidisciplinary, data-centric approach to the entire film’s restoration process.

Once the complete film was digitally transferred, came the most challenging part of restoration. Thousands of instances of dirt, lines, scratches, splices, warps, jitters and green patches were manually removed frame by frame under careful supervision by experienced artists.

The in-house talented professionals used a specialised film content mending and defect removal mechanism in their repair process. They carefully selected the best way to restore this priceless classic to its original quality.

The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 35mm optical soundtrack. Clicks, thumps, hisses and hums were manually removed frame by frame.

Says Anupama Chopra, Festival Director, Jio MAMI, “We at MAMI are indeed delighted to screen Pyaasa. There are some masterpieces of the bygone era that a lot of people have not seen, either due to their poor condition or inaccessibility. These films when restored the right way can give it a completely new life and also can help not only to be screened but also as a strong reference material.”

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Tech

Review: Coolpad Note 3

This new phone looks good on paper and performs well too. It is a great device, save for some glitches.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

The Chinese company that started its smartphone journey here with the Dazen1 and Dazen X7 is now out with the Coolpad Note 3. While the Dazen1 certainly provided a bang for the buck, we were a little disappointed with the DazenX7. Let’s check out if the Coolpad Note 3 performs enough to take on this already-heated price segment of under Rs 10,000.

The looks. There are two White bands above the 5.5-inch HD screen that sport LED notification, sensors, ear-speaker grille, 5 MP camera at the top; and three capacitive touch buttons – Recent Apps list, Home, and Back (from left to right) – at the bottom. The phone is quite large but doesn’t feel awkward to hold given its sheer screen size and curved sides on the back. At the back, it accommodates the bio-metric fingerprint scanner around the centre, and the slightly-protruding 13 MP camera, which is surrounded by LED flash and secondary mic. The loudspeaker is located near the bottom.

On the left is your volume rocker, which is all plastic and feels just okay in terms of tactical feedback; while the Power/ Lock key is on the right and isn’t difficult to reach. The 3.5mm headset jack is on the top, and the bottom part hosts the microUSB port.

Screen. The phone sports a 5.5-inch (1280 x 720) IPS panel. The screen is great for outdoor usage under sunlight and does a good job of colour reproduction. HD videos look quite nice on it, and I didn’t spot any shortcomings while viewing videos, though high-resolution images may appear a little washed out to some coming from a high-end screen.

Coolpad Note 3Camera. The Note 3 boasts a 13 MP (f/2.0) camera on the back. Here are a few sample images.

The camera does a good job at focus adjustment and capturing colours, but struggles with sharpness. It is decent at handling low-light shots, and the camera app, with a bunch of usual modes to pick from, works really well for taking shots in most situations.

Battery. The phone often lasted around 20 hours with heavy to moderate usage. With light use, it can last you a full day on a single charge. This includes brightness at 20%, some Leo’s Fortune, Twitter, WhatsApp, and EMail (Gmail app) with a single SIM card inserted. The phone takes a little over 2 hours to get its 3,000 mAh battery unit fully charged, and while it supports quick charging you will need another higher capacity charger as the default charger you get in the box doesn’t support it.

Audio. The phone’s loudspeaker at the back is pretty much average and its placement doesn’t help either. It’s fine for ringing and notification alert, but don’t expect good sound for videos and games. The phone has good call quality on both sides, but I did notice a bit of performance deterioration in terms of network reception compared to other smartphones on the same network and in the same areas. The Note 3 supports 4G LTE on of the SIM slots (both require microSIM cards) and usual 3G and 2G on the other slot.

Software and performance. The Coolpad Note is powered by the MediaTek MT6753 chipset (1.3 GHz octa-core processor, Mali T720 MP2 GPU) along with 3 GB of RAM. It runs on CoolUI 6.0 that’s based on Android 5.1. The fingerprint scanner on the back is nicely mushed below the surface and works really well, about 8 out of 10 times. While some might find its back placement a bit odd, it’s not that strange after a few days of use, plus it unlocks your screen quickly.

Long-pressing the Home key brings up Google Now. You can now lock a particular app in the recent apps list, so that it doesn’t get cleared when you clear all apps from the list. The OS seems to have fixed push notifications issue with messaging apps. Performance-wise, the phone seems quite smooth and hardly lagged during use. The OS still looks and feels quite immature, like icons, default sound tracks, etc, and the theme center hardly has any options to choose from. Its basic style of having all your apps shortcuts and widgets on various Home screens is still there, though you can now switch to “traditional style” and have a separate app launcher in addition to your Home screens.

All in all, the phone that seems compelling on paper also performs pretty well to make it a good phone at this price point. It has a good screen, above average battery life, but while it struggles with sound quality and how CoolUI looks, the OS performed pretty well and a fingerprint scanner that doesn’t disappoint for daily use making it a worthy contender, with the likes of the Honor 4X, RedMi 2 Prime, Karbonn MachOne Titanium and a few others, for those looking for buy a smartphone under Rs. 9,000 or so.

(Pictures courtesy Manik Kakra)

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Film

Review: Rajwade and Sons

This week’s release is the story of generational conflict in one of Pune’s richest business families. Watch it with family.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

A film about business, interpersonal relationships and how succeeding generations view the world through a different prism, Rajwade and Sons is a story of familial obligations, stifling dreams and carrying on age-old traditions.

Adamant patriarch Rameshrao Rajwade (Satish Alekar) is the head of the Rajwade family and his children – Vidyadhar (Sachin Khedekar), Laxmi (Mrinal Kulkarni) and Shubhankar (Atul Kulkarni) obey their father’s decisions and orthodox values without questioning him.

Vidyadhar is prone to snooping on his children by checking their Facebook accounts and even discussing the same with his wife. Meanwhile, Anay is slightly self-centred with his love for shoes and his laptop, while Shweta is interested in working and travelling around the world.  Laxmi lives in her father’s place along with husband Vaibhav Joshi (Rahul Mehendale) and their kids – Annaya (Mrinmayee Godbole) and Virajas (Siddharth Menon). Virajas is shown working half-heartily in family business with Anay, while Annaya wants to pursue her career in modeling.

 

In this cast of characters is introduced Vikram (Amitriyaan Patil), Rameshrao’s estranged son who has left the family home years ago and not been in touch ever since. Anay, Annaya, Shweta and Virajas go to their old home and discover Vikram’s belongings and also take some of the things. Till one day, Vikram returns and everyone is excited and happy to see him, except for Rameshrao, Shubhankar and Vaibhav. They suspect that he has come for his share of the money and property. Vikram’s entry in the family energises the third generation of the Rajwade family to pursuing their dreams.

Sachin Kundalkar keeps the right amount of twists in the story, and realistically showcases how the older generation’s decisions are forced on the succeeding ones. There is a harsh glare shone on the infighting and the concept of the Indian joint family that restricts the younger generation from living their dreams. The pace of the film is well balanced in the second half with good camerawork by Arjun Sorte. Atul Kulkarni and Amitriyan Patil deliver good performances and they are very well supported by Alok Rajwade, Krutika Deo, Mrinmayee Godbole and Siddharth Menon. This one is a good watch with your family members – even the extended family ones.

(Picture courtesy marathimovieworld.com)

Categories
Film

Review: Sicario

A fast-paced thriller that explores morality and humanity in interactions with criminals, this one’s a one-time watch for action fans.
by Ravi Shet
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Sicario is directed by Denis Villeneuve, and it is a story that deals with the drug trade and how US agencies sometimes bend the rules to dismantle this business and the people associated with them.

The film features FBI Special Weapons and Tactics Teams agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), agent Reggie Wayne (Daniel Kaluuya) and their team on their way to raid a house in Chandler, Arizona. To their shock, the FBI team discovers an array of dead bodies embedded in the walls of house, while two FBI officers are killed by an explosion in the backyard.

Dave Jennings (Victor Garber), Kate’s boss, Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), Department of Defense advisor and others include Kate and her elite team of agents in a plan to look for the person responsible for the incident, which includes cartel boss Manuel Diaz (Bernardo Saracino). Kate and Matt leave for their mission via plane to El Paso, where Alejandro Gillick (Benico Del Toro) joins them. Kate soon discovers many disturbing facts – the plan is going to Juarez, Mexico instead of El Paso, Texas to extract a prisoner named Guillermo, Manuel’s henchman. Then, Matt’s methods are highly questionable when extracting the criminals, with no concern for civilian safety and civil laws.

 

Soon, Guillermo is badly tortured by Matt and Alejandro to know the whereabouts of Manuel. Matt and Alejandro succeed in getting the exact location of the tunnel that the cartel uses to get drugs into the US through the help of Mexican migrants. Kate and Reggie feel that Matt keeps them in the dark about many details and do not answer their doubts convincingly. This back intrigue sets the stage for many twists in the story.

The pace of the film is well maintained. Roger Deakins’s camerawork is superlative, especially in the scenes shot through underground tunnels on different types of night-vision equipments. Emily portrays Kate with the right balance of strength and empathy, while Josh Brolin and Benico Del Toro support the film with solid performances. This one’s a must-watch for thriller and action fans.

(Picture courtesy www.sbs.com.au)

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Listen

Jazz fever hits Mumbai

Famed jazz musician Igor Butman kicks off Mumbai tour with a spellbinding stage performance with talented visually challenged Mumbai students.
by Ravi Shet

Noted Russian Jazz maestro Igor Butman, after giving a magical performance in Goa on October 4, 2015 reached Mumbai yesterday with his quartet comprising Saxophone, Drums, Double Bass and Piano. Jus’ Jazz 2015, an annual jazz fest series is initiated by Jazz Addicts, a group of jazz enthusiasts.

Igor needs no introduction, especially to people who understand and love jazz music throughout the globe. It was in the year 2003 that Igor first came to India as a part of India Russia Cultural Programme and this is the fourth time Igor (who has been associated with Jazz Addicts) has come to India. This time, he will enthrall audiences with a unique presentation.

His quartet features an exceptionally talented pianist, vocalist and the visually challenged Oleg Akkuratov from a small Russian town, Armavir. Oleg has won numerous awards and hearts through his incomparable talent. Igor met Oleg three years ago in a competition and was impressed by him. Drummer Eduard Zizak and Sergei Korchagin, double bass player, a new member of the Quartet, completes this magical band.

In an interactive workshop yesterday between Igor Butman Quartet and the students from National Association of Blind (NAB) at Little Theatre, NCPA, Mumbai, every moment was a touching one and the auditorium was spellbound by jazz fever. The NAB students and Igor Butman Quartet had an excellent Jam session and also one of the NAB students, Bhagwan and Oleg sang ‘Mera Joota Hai Japani’ which was an excellent performance of the evening.

Igor Butman Quartet will perform today at Tata Theatre, NCPA. Igor says with his infectious smile, “I love coming to India since people over here respect and appreciates jazz music and also the food, especially chicken dishes are really good. Jazz music motivates me to perform and improvise my own composition every time.” He says that music runs in his family, his grandfather was a pianist who used to perform for Russian band. “I enjoyed watching my father performing on the stage and that made me follow in his footsteps. Also my mother and grandfather encouraged me lot in my music journey.”

Jazz music lovers, get ready to be mesmerised this evening by Igor Butman Quartet.

This event is at Tata Theatre, NCPA, 7 pm today, Tuesday, October 6, 2015. Tickets are priced from Rs 300 to Rs 1,668.

Categories
Film

Review: Dagadi Chawl

Excellent performances and slick camera work make this film stand out, though the story and plot follow a predictable graph.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

Dagadi Chawl directed by debutant director Chandrakant Kanse not only focuses on gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli (known as ‘Daddy’) but also highlights the story of a common man caught in the deadly world of crime and the era of gang wars in late 90s.

The film, based in Mumbai in 1996, starts with Daddy (played by Makrand Deshpande) performing a puja at Dagadi Chawl, while his trusted henchman, Chandu Mama (Sanjay Khapre) attacks a local politician who is set to contest elections against Gawli.

Suryakant Sadashiv Shinde aka Surya (Ankush Chaudhari) who works for Daddy collects extortion money from a builder named Desai. On getting a complaint from Desai, encounter specialist Inspector Kale (Kamlesh Sawant) picks up Surya and plans to bump him off to complete a half century of encounters. However, DCP Ashfaq Khan interrupts Kale’s vehicle and demands that Surya be transferred to him.

On interrogation, Surya reveals the story of how he chanced upon a life of crime: when a group of goons harasses his girlfriend, he gets into an altercation that ends with him beating many of them up. This lands him squarely in Daddy’s crosshairs, because the goons are his boys.

This film will remind you of the gritty Satya and Vaastav, since the backdrop of the plot is quite similar. Here too, an innocent man falls prey to an unforeseen situation and ends up in the murky world of crime. Some of the scenes in the movie are predictable; however some slick camera work clubbed with a good background score and sharp editing are the positives of the film.

Ankush Chaudhari as Surya justifies his role perfectly; however Makrand Deshpande as Daddy impresses the audiences a lot more through his body language and dialogue delivery. Sanjay Khapre and Yatin Karyekar play good supporting roles. Many in the audience will also love the ‘Morya’ song played during the Ganesh Visarjan scene.

(Picture courtesy marathistars.com)

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