Sholay (1975)

[infiniteCR]

I've been looking to see if this is on Bluray?


Also, is there any DVD even that has the Widescreen version of this with the 204 minute directors cut and the surround sound (70mm 6track)?


This appears to be an excellent movie by all accounts so a little shocked this is hard to find in a proper format.

[Hindustani]

In order to screen SHOLAY in your present HDTV in the best available format at this point in time.

You'll have to do 2 following things.

(1)PICTURE Quality only: Get SHOLAY Anamorphic Widescreen DVD of Carlotta (FRENCH) edition. According to all the reviews, SHOLAY (carlotta) French DVD has the best PQ available in 480p anamorphic widescreen format.

(2) AUDIO Quality only: Get your hands on SHOLAY original DEI DVD minus EROS logo or B4U logo or fake DEI logo. This original late 1990s release has the best, most authentic, 4-track stereo surround sound directly authored from Sholay 70mm 6-track stereophonic sound print.

Good luck finding the latter (original DEI) DVD. Former (french carlotta) is available through amazon.fr.

also, get ready to spend good chunk of money.

[infiniteCR]

Thank you for the detailed information. Looks like there are only French subtitles so I am out of luck. This title looks like it deserves a bluray transfer quickly before it becomes too hard to do so. The fact that it received a 70mm blow up print says a lot already to me. I'll cross my fingers.


And by the way, I feel like I need to spend a good chunk of money to receive all Indian films so far! LOL

[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/

[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.

[infiniteCR]

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/

O this is excellent. Many thanks for an incredible source. I am going to ask my younger brother if he can help me make this into a DVD.

[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!

[nrD]

What's the best 35mm 4/3 version source?

[HDDCS]

Originally Posted by nrD

What's the best 35mm 4/3 version source?

Eros came out with the open matte version of Sholay around fifteen years ago. Although far from a stellar transfer, it is worth owning for an entirely differently framed picture, and the alternate ending that had created flames within the censor board when sent for valuation.

[rs3771]

I vividly remember the first time I saw Sholay on the big screen was in 1985 may be (a rerun for the 10th anniversary - that's what it was) - in the 2.2:1 AR - and remember being completely blown away - with the train sequence - clearly, I'd never seen anything like that in Indian movies. I came home and remembered every scene of the movie for days and days and days. A year later or so, went again with a bunch of friends to watch it in one of the many many reruns in the 80s - and this time, to my complete surprise, the movie was in Academy AR - which confused the heck out of me - and I began to question my memory - had I really seen it in widescreen AR before? How could it now suddenly turn into Academy AR? The question remained unanswered for some 25 years!! Until I read recently that the movie was released in two formats - the 2.2:1 AR as well as the Academy AR (and the many many many struggles of Ramesh Sippy to just release the movie). Clearly, the Academy AR was very underwhelming and didn't do justice to the movie. Just sharing my recollections....

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by rs3771

I vividly remember the first time I saw Sholay on the big screen was in 1985 may be (a rerun for the 10th anniversary - that's what it was) - in the 2.2:1 AR - and remember being completely blown away - with the train sequence - clearly, I'd never seen anything like that in Indian movies. I came home and remembered every scene of the movie for days and days and days. A year later or so, went again with a bunch of friends to watch it in one of the many many reruns in the 80s - and this time, to my complete surprise, the movie was in Academy AR - which confused the heck out of me - and I began to question my memory - had I really seen it in widescreen AR before? How could it now suddenly turn into Academy AR? The question remained unanswered for some 25 years!! Until I read recently that the movie was released in two formats - the 2.2:1 AR as well as the Academy AR (and the many many many struggles of Ramesh Sippy to just release the movie). Clearly, the Academy AR was very underwhelming and didn't do justice to the movie. Just sharing my recollections....

I never watched SHOLAY on big screen. I was way too young.

My first SHOLAY cinema experience was suppose to be 2014 re-release anywhere in NYC, NJ tri-state area. I even compromised on 3D screening which I hate wearing those glasses. Worse come to worse, I was gonna close my eyes and enjoy the Dolby Atmos mix.

SHOLAY never released in USA.

I tried to see open matte of SHOLAY 1.37:1. I just couldn't focus kept getting distracted. It feels badly shot as Bachchan's long legs were dominating his face in every frame.

SHOLAY is best enjoyed on atleast 2.20:1 or above upto 2:40:1 imo. This is how director and his DOP intended but were limited by expensive technology.

That train scene is the best example. I have seen it in both open matte and "scope" format.

2.35:1 "scope" ratio really creates that hot, high noon, clastrophobic atmosphere inside the engine room scenes and bulletts hitting scenes.

[Dead Rippers Society]

https://vimeo.com/4485465

[frend2001]

So on 15th Aug 2016, it was aired on Star Gold in India.

The print shown was 2D version of 3D Release. I can say it looked great, although my subscription had SD version of this channel. It was a 70 mm transfer with revamped audio effects. Color reproduction was true and the transfer was very sharp and detailed.

So at last there is copy of Sholay which is in restored and is fun to watch.

Next best thing after Carlotta DVD.

Fingers crossed for Blu ray disc release of it.

[prepress]

I guess it was discussed earlier, posting that link again FYI. By the way, these screenshots says enough about 35mm and 70mm.

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

[imsounoriginal]

What's the best version of the movie with the 4x3 aspect ratio? I have the PEN DVD from years ago and it looks like crap, I'd love to get the 4x3 one as that's my preferred ratio and I need a better DVD of this movie anyway (assuming a Blu-ray isn't on the horizon anytime soon...).

[rs3771]

Originally Posted by prepress

I guess it was discussed earlier, posting that link again FYI. By the way, these screenshots says enough about 35mm and 70mm.

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

Right - but what these screenshots don't tell is the impact on the viewer who sees these versions in a CIH setup (which is the case 99% of the time). I recall seeing it in the widescreen version first and then a year later in the academy AR in the 80s and the latter was truly underwhelming mainly because of the CIH setup...

[zoran]

If u ask me widescreen screws it


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[ravenus]

FFS, why do we have 2 separate threads for a NON-EXISTENT blu-ray?!