Catch 'technically enhanced' films of eminent director Bimal Roy at KIFF 2018

Enhanced old classics of venerable director Bimal Roy being screened at the 24th Kolkata International Film Festival have been improved technologically using the DVD format, experts said on Monday.

Five films of the legendary director, including 'Do Bigha Zamin' and 'Sujata' are on show in various venues of KIFF under the Great Master section.

"I am using the word 'enhanced' not restoration of Bimal Roy's classics as it involves the change and improvement of technology using DVD format, not just restoring them in celluloid format. We have brought five films at the festival," film curator Ratnottama Sengupta said.

'Pehla Aadmi', 'Maa' and 'Yahudi' are the other three films selected for the festival.

Sengupta said the National Film Archive of India is doing the work of enhancing, and work on many of Roy's films like 'Devdas', 'Parakh' is already complete.

Sadly, no print of his film 'Baap Beti' is available. Also, 'Anjangarh' and one of his comedy 'Mantramugdhu' are completely lost, she lamented.

Bimal Roy along with Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt and Mehboob Khan represented the Golden Age of Hindi cinema.

Referring to the stature of Roy, who actively directed films for almost 20 years, Sengupta said, "Roy had an all-pervasive presence who had put not just Bengali, but Indian cinema on the world map."

During the festival's inaugural ceremony, Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan called for restoring old Bengali films and urged the industry and the public to come together in building up a movement on the issue.

The West Bengal government has already entered into an agreement with the Film Heritage Foundation for the restoration and preservation of Bengali classics.

"The Film Heritage Foundation is mainly restoring films on celluloid," Sengupta remarked.

Meanwhile, a weeklong film preservation and restoration workshops been arranged from November 15-22 at Rabindra Sadan.

Leading film restoration specialists are taking part in the workshop.

--IANS

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