Awara (1951) - 4K Restoration by NFAI-NFDC

[raghuuvir]

Awara (1951) resurrected through a stunning 4k restoration undertaken by NFAI-NFDC. Check out the screen grabs.

A news article detailing the initiative: https://www.moneycontrol.com/enterta...-12808115.html

[ravenus]

Divided on this. It is the best it has looked thus far, but there appears to be noticeable DVNR.

[Jafar]

Clearly a DNR disaster. That mole on RK's face (last screenshot) looks like a hole left by a removed nail.

[raghuuvir]

Cannot disagree with you both. I am just imagining the state of the original film material, full of scratches and lines. Perhaps this degree of DVNR was the only solution.

I appreciate the contrast levels, though - glad they are not boosted to make the characters look like wax statues.

[Jafar]

I'm no technical expert but degraining does not help with scratches and damages. It's almost always done by the uninformed who sees grain as a "problem" and intends to give the image a "clean" digital look without realising that all the detail is going to be lost in the process. I bet the restoration team members had their jaws on the floor and patted each other's back looking at those degrained waxy faces.

[Dragun]

Oof, that is no "restoration." A Film Heritage Foundation/Ritrovata restoration would have looked much better, without the egregious DNR.

[gag21]

Originally Posted by Jafar

I'm no technical expert but degraining does not help with scratches and damages. It's almost always done by the uninformed who sees grain as a "problem" and intends to give the image a "clean" digital look without realising that all the detail is going to be lost in the process. I bet the restoration team members had their jaws on the floor and patted each other's back looking at those degrained waxy faces.

Degraining does not help with scratches and dust but overzealous scratch removal causes degraining which is what happened here.
as good as the scratch removal is it has caused loss of film grain larger then smallest scratch.

But still its the best version we have

[raghuuvir]

watched Awara today during its re-release as part of the Raj Kapoor anthology. The version they released looked significantly better than the quality depicted in some earlier screenshots—it had noticeable grain resolution. Recently, in an interview, Kunal Kapoor (Shashi Kapoor’s son) mentioned how poor the original restoration by NFAI was (this version was shown at TIFF). He explained that he had the restoration reworked by Prasad Labs. Interestingly, the re-released version mentions Prasad Labs as the video restoration team. This is a promising step to ensure a superior version compared to NFAI’s work. Kunal also described NFAI’s approach to film restoration and preservation as bureaucratic.

In addition to Awara, I also watched restored versions of Shree 420, Sangam, and Chori Chori. After Awara, Shree 420 stood out as the best restoration, among all these.

Unfortunately, Sangam suffered from DVNR issues, and Chori Chori had excessive contrast boosting, making them less impressive.

[gag21]

Originally Posted by raghuuvir

watched Awara today during its re-release as part of the Raj Kapoor anthology. The version they released looked significantly better than the quality depicted in some earlier screenshots—it had noticeable grain resolution. Recently, in an interview, Kunal Kapoor (Shashi Kapoor’s son) mentioned how poor the original restoration by NFAI was (this version was shown at TIFF). He explained that he had the restoration reworked by Prasad Labs. Interestingly, the re-released version mentions Prasad Labs as the video restoration team. This is a promising step to ensure a superior version compared to NFAI’s work. Kunal also described NFAI’s approach to film restoration and preservation as bureaucratic.

In addition to Awara, I also watched restored versions of Shree 420, Sangam, and Chori Chori. After Awara, Shree 420 stood out as the best restoration, among all these.

Unfortunately, Sangam suffered from DVNR issues, and Chori Chori had excessive contrast boosting, making them less impressive.

I watched Aag, Shree 420, Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Barsaat, Aawara, Bobby

As you know aag and shree 420 had projection Crop issue in my theater that I got corrected for next movies. So I only saw the center 1.85:1 2k portion of them.

Aag looked the most faded.
Shree 420 was ok.
RTGM and bobby had bit of nr in some shots but were better in clarity then any version I have seen.
Barsaat and aawara looked the best to me.

RTGM was the only one without Prasad Labs restoration credits and it was completely censor free with U certificate
While barsaat had some words muted and was A certificate

[raghuuvir]

The actual projection of Shree 420 held up quite well. Barsaat looked good for most part, but there were some portions that looked a little weak. The film’s photography is breathtaking, so good grading and contrasts are crucial, which was thankfully delivered in this version. With that said, the grain management could have been much better. I also noticed some inconsistencies in the audio restorations of Sangam and Barsaat - there were portions that sounded garbled.

Were the release prints and optical soundtracks all that were available? But this is better than nothing. Someone should release these on BD/OTT. If the fact that all the shows are attended went houseful was anything to go by, they’d do well when released on OTT.

[benhoppel]

Any BDs coming?