The National Film Heritage Mission will screen four timeless classics that have been restored by NFDC-NFAI.
17 October 2023: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, announced that it will honor Waheeda Rehman's lifetime achievements by hosting a four-day film festival, "Waheeda Rehman Retrospective," in Delhi from October 18–21. Rehman has been awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2021 for her lifetime contributions.
Swati Bhat
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, announced that on the day of the 69th National Film Award ceremony held in Delhi, it will be honoring the lifetime contribution of Waheeda Rehman, who has been given the Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2021, by hosting a four-day film festival, "Waheeda Rehman Retrospective," in Delhi from October 18-21.
A carefully chosen selection of masterworks will be screened during this four-day festival, which will be held at the Film Division Auditorium on Mahadev Road in Delhi. The movies are "Guide" (1965) on October 18, "Bees Saal Baad" (1962), "Pyaasa" (1957), "Guide" (1965), "Kaagaz ke Phool" (1959), and "Kaagaz ke Phool" (1959), all at 6 p.m. First-come, first-served and non-commercial, the screenings are offered.
This retrospective is made even more special by the fact that two of the four films to be screened, Guide and Bees Saal Baad, have been restored in 4K, and Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz ke Phool (1959) have been restored in 2K as part of the National Film Heritage Mission, an initiative of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to revive old classic Indian films. These restorations were laboriously carried out by the National Film Development Corporation-National Film Archive
Multiple professionals work on the original film reel for months during the laborious restoration procedure in order to revitalize it. 35mm release prints of Guide and a 35mm master positive of Bees Saal Baad have been digitized in 4K quality using cutting-edge archival film scanners before the restoration process began. The movies were kept safe in the temperature- and relative humidity-controlled vaults of NFDC-NFAI for many years. The new 4K restorations are now possible thanks to the historic movies' long-term preservation.
A movie must go through a number of difficult stages in order to be restored in 4K, including the thorough restoration of each frame and the digital removal of time-related flaws including dust, grime, splices, pinholes, tears, and scratches. More than 2.5 lakh frames in a three-hour movie need to be improved. The next step is color grading, where focused efforts are made to address the problem of color fading and restore the film to its original, brilliant appearance. The movie's audio is also being digitally repaired at the same time. The audience would feel as though the print had just been developed and printed in a photochemical film lab after the final restoration.
No other institution in the nation has 4K restored versions of these cinematic treasures, so the retrospective will be a unique opportunity for cinephiles to see these movies on the big screen.
On the NFDC's social media pages, you can find further information on the location, time, and date.