Cheap white DVDs

MARQUEE

Movie buffs can now get their monthly fix without shady dealers.

As a serial collector of DVDs (including those of films often described as “obscure” — basically, anything that isn’t mainstream Bollywood or contemporary-mainstream Hollywood), I’ve noticed a shift in my buying patterns.

There was a time when a once-a-month trip to the underground shops in Palika Bazaar was mandatory, because of 1) the rich variety of non-mainstream films available in “original copy” prints, and 2) the prices, which never exceeded Rs 150-200 per DVD, well below the cynical racketeering of “white” stores.

But taking stock of my discs the other day, I realised that my last 30-odd purchases have been from legitimate outlets. How did this come to pass, I asked myself — it’s not like I suddenly grew a conscience and decided to cut down on the pirated stuff. The answer is that local legit shops such as Musicland and Planet M are now stocking a greater variety of titles and simultaneously offering attractive deals on them.

There was a time not so long ago when there were hardly any foreign-language or non-contemporary Hollywood films available on DVD in these stores, and if there were you had to shell out a minimum of Rs 600 (okay, Rs 599) per disc. Things have changed on both fronts now.

On my most recent visit to the nearest Musicland, I discovered shelf labels advertising discounts of the sort that that I had only seen in London’s HMV stores before this. A notable feature of major international music stores like HMV is that a large proportion of their DVDs are “on sale” round the year.

Discs are being replenished every week and store-space wears thin, which means that generous discounts can always be provided; if you have browsing time, you can be assured of good deals. My favourite memory of shopping at HMV is buying three DVD box-sets — containing a total of nine films — for just £20.

If you do a straightforward currency-conversion, this is around the same as the Palika Bazaar prices, but taking purchasing-power differences into account, the rough equivalent in Indian currency would be Rs 400 for the whole lot, which is dirt-cheap. Besides, these are beautifully packaged discs with lots of special features.

The discounts currently offered at music stores in India can’t compare, but at least it’s a start. “Buy 2 DVDs, get one free” read one of the labels in Musicland (effectively reducing the price of three films from Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,000, or from Rs 1,200 to Rs 800). “25 per cent discount on any disc on this shelf” said another. There was even a “5 discs for Rs 555” scheme, though the DVDs in this section had a suspiciously second-hand look about them.

Meanwhile, the advent of distributors such as Palador and NDTV Lumiere has helped increase variety. Palador, in collaboration with Moser Baer, has been distributing films by iconic directors (Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Bergman) as well as lesser-known ones (Tsai Ming-Liang, Kihachi Okamoto), and there are interesting box-sets on the way — details on their website: http://mypalador.com.

Meanwhile, NDTV Lumiere — which has already done a good job of enabling the improbable commercial release (in multiplexes!) of foreign-language films such as Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Three Monkeys — has made available a limited selection of films (Louis Malle’s Goodbye, Children and Philippe Aractingi’s Under the Bombs among them, last I checked).

These DVDs cost between Rs 400 and Rs 500, which is still quite steep — I don’t see why original discs can’t be routinely available in the Rs 200 price range — but things should improve as more titles come in. For now, at least it’s possible for the obscure-movie buff to get his monthly fix — at halfway reasonable rates — without having to plunge into the underworld.