cinema: guru dutt films COMMENTS
Guru Dutt films in colour? His cinematographer V.K. Murthy and fans baulk at the idea.


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Daily Mail
Digression
1
Apr 05, 2010
The Colours of Chiaroscuro

The title Sahib, Bibi, cmyk for your article on the colouring of Guru Dutt films was erroneous (Mar 22). Colour films are not printed on offset presses. The release print has three layers of colour-sensitive emulsion. So, if you did wish to use computer terminology, then it should have been rgb and not cmyk. As for Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam, the film probably did not recover production cost on initial run. In fact a review in a film trade magazine just after its release actually declared: Sharabi Bibi, Vyabhichari Sahib and Nikhattu Ghulam. I saw the first show of this film at Nandan Cinema, Amritsar, and liked it a lot, but that was, and still is not, the case for most moviegoers. My suggestion to Arun Dutt is to shift his ‘nigahein’ and find another ‘nishana’ for his colour dreams. He could also perhaps put back the Fiffi song in the film which was cut because the censors felt that the lyrics implied the Bombay police as being corrupt.

Sudhir, Gurgaon

I was the one who rendered Mughal-e-Azam in colour and am yet to receive any negative comment on it as the film deserved to be coloured. Naya Daur did not do as well since the film was not supposed to be coloured. Arun Dutt has been trying to colour his films since 2003, before MeA went colour. But, first of all, colourisation as a technology is not easy, and secondly, it needs good investment. There are almost a hundred people who lay claim to the rights on Guru Dutt’s films. Arun does not have the money to invest and investors do not see potential in this project as the market for colourisation has not entirely worked in India. MeA was the first project of its kind and we completed it in 10 months’ time and released it successfully worldwide while others have been talking about it for a decade and yet have not been able to complete even 10 minutes of a clip.

Rajeev Dwivedi, Mumbai

How anyone can even conceive of tinkering with a movie as wonderful, meaningful and aesthetically perfect as Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam is beyond me! Someone should stop Arun Dutt from committing this complete sacrilege against probably the most perfect Hindi movie ever made.

Raveesh Varma, Grand Rapids, US

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1/D-106
Mar 13, 2010
02:02 PM
Guess some people like Arun Dutt are prone to be misguided in envisioning that the legacy of a creative father be updated for more convenient viewing by contemporay audiences.
Mughal-e-Azam worked because of its genre and presentation whereas the subsequent films like Naya Daur failed miserably in their coloured avatar (to date its not even premiered on satellite TV!). Even the Hum Dono project appears to be in a limbo!
Would rather suggest Arun to focus his energy (and money) in providing the opportunity to the new wave flowing across Indian cinema - by being an angel investor in low budget Hindi and Marathi cinema...
Harsh Rai Puri
Bhopal, India
2/D-55
Mar 15, 2010
01:09 PM
Sugata,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam directed by Abrar Alvi and not Guru Dutt. It has always been rumoured that Guru Dutt, in fact, ghost-directed it, but I have not seen it confirmed in print before. Were you simply referring to who produced the films?
arup
calcutta, India
3/D-79
Mar 16, 2010
04:27 AM
WTF! why not go a step further and techno-remix the soundtrack with bikini babes?

The power of the images of this classic movie lie in it's black-and-white cinematography. Coloring it will simply ruin the effect.
Adi
XXXXX, USA
4/D-90
Mar 16, 2010
06:02 AM
I agree with all the comments above. I was the one who did Mughal-e-Azam and so far i have not received any bad comment about color version of MEA as this film deserved to be colored. Naya Daur did not do well as that film was not supposed to be colored. Arun Dutta was trying to color his films since 2003 even before MEA started for coloring but first of all colorization as a technology is not easy to do and secondly it needs good investment. on Guru Dutta's films, there are 100 people who claims rights. Arun does not have money to invest. investors do not see this potential project as market for colorization did not work in India. Even i have come to know that all 13 films of Guru Dutta were sold to someone. I know him but do not want to take his name here. MEA was the first project of its kind and we completed in 10 months time, released successfully world wide while others are just talking for last one decade but even did not complete a 10 minutes of clip. All wanted to be in media by giving a BIG picture thats it.
Rajeev dwivedi
Mumbai, India
5/D-5
Mar 17, 2010
12:13 AM
How can anyone even conceive of tinkering with a movie as wonderful, meaningful and aesthetically perfect as 'Sahib, Bibi aur Gulaam' is beyond me! Someone should stop Arun Dutt from committing this sacrilege aginst probably the most perfect Hindi movie ever made.
Raveesh Varma
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
6/D-64
Mar 20, 2010
11:02 AM
Comparison between two all time classics viz : Mughal-E-Azam and SBaG is totally crass since there were different reasons in the mind of producers/directors. Therefore colorization in toto of MeA was a welcoming feature since it was a novel idea to see Venus of India Madhubala with many sheds of color; whereas there is absolutely no need to paint Meena Kumari in the similar manner, because concept of black and white to SBaG has its own applicability and people in love of that era, will surely not go to the movie theater to see the gem in color.
Indraraj Pawar
Kolhapur, India
7/D-73
Jan 12, 2012
02:38 PM

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Bipin
Pune, India
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