Sholay (1975)

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by HDDCS

Here's the link to a supposed corrected version on Sholay sourced from the Carlotta DVD with an introduced stream of English subtitles.

http://memsaabstory.com/2010/11/07/sholay-1975/

there is a dramatic intimacy to the cropped 70mm version. It brings you right into the frame instead of distancing you as an observer. Believe me, it is breathtaking. Sometimes less really is more!

Thanks.

I cannot agree more with the reviewer's statement.

The "coin toss" scene and "Bachchan Banyan tree hanging" scene are two such scenarios where SHOLAY can never ever be intimate enough to enjoy on 1.37:1 35mm print.

It was shot in such a way that it needs to be seen in "scope" format.

Atleast 2.20:1 Aspect Ratio

I think Carlotta folks got hold of SHOLAY 70MM Master or close to it. It could be in London archives as 70MM prints were printed in UK.

[HDDCS]

Originally Posted by Hindustani

I think Carlotta folks got hold of SHOLAY 70MM Master or close to it. It could be in London archives as 70MM prints were printed in UK.

I wonder why Carlotta chose not to opt to provide Dolby Pro Logic or even a remixed 5.1 stream from the 6 track stereophonic audio source. The audio on Carlotta is a misery! A plain monoaural audio stream suffering from excessive filtering and reduction artifacts.
It would be a wonder if some tech headed Guru could combine the audio from DEi with the Carlotta video. We'd have a winner.

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by HDDCS

I wonder why Carlotta chose not to opt to provide Dolby Pro Logic or even a remixed 5.1 stream from the 6 track stereophonic audio source. The audio on Carlotta is a misery! A plain mono audio suffering from excessive filtering and reduction.
It would be a wonder if some tech headed Guru could combine the audio from DEi with the Carlotta video. We'd have a winner.

Hmm interesting.

I cannot contemplate as to what 1975 post-production working atmosphere may have been in London in terms of 70mm celluloid prints and adding 6-track stereo sound.

This Carlotta print could be a working print. From the screenshots, PQ for DVD looks very good and detailed. Maybe a reason as to why Carlotta wanted it split on 2 DVDs.

This might be the most innitial 70MM print of the most initial stages to get the highest resolution transfer with proper technicolor color correction right before working on Audio from mono to 6-track stereo.

Again, these are all speculation. But I'm pretty sure, Carlotta guys in Paris did not bother contacting Sippy productions at Bombay to ship anything out of India. They probably went straight to London 70MM archives once they knew post-production of SHOLAY done in UK.

[HDDCS]

Originally Posted by Hindustani

This Carlotta print could be a working print. From the screenshots, PQ for DVD looks very good and detailed. Maybe a reason as to why Carlotta wanted it split on 2 DVDs.

Do note that those screenshots are a result of extensive work done on the Carlotta DVD by Thomas Daniel (thank you, tommy!) Hence, there's such an overwhelming detail level and a heart warming palette of colors. To Carlotta's credit, they did get hold of an excellent print, and chose to stick to a closer-to-true aspect ratio; however, the transfer leaves a lot to be desired. Inherent softness was still as poor as any other edition of the film on DVD, and the contrast and colors were off as well. Audio, as mentioned earlier was a sheer disappointment being laden with noise reduction artifacts. What would have made this corrected version more tempting was merging the multichannel audio from the DEi version. Though, the songs have been replaced with the CD audio in this version. So that's all good.
Here's a detailed write up on the efforts taken by Thomas.
http://www.mediafire.com/view/u5kbpn...09x/Sholay.pdf

Originally Posted by Hindustani

Again, these are all speculation. But I'm pretty sure, Carlotta guys in Paris did not bother contacting Sippy productions at Bombay to ship anything out of India. They probably went straight to London 70MM archives once they knew post-production of SHOLAY done in UK.

I do enjoy your observations and speculations on the forums. Anything could have been the deal here. I had once also read that the stereophonic audio source rests in London along with the 70MM archives, while some others suggest that the source has died. Who knows!