It is said that “If a book is still in print after 50 years, it is probably more important to read than a new book.”
But the same cannot be said about films, as the medium of production of films itself has changed from celluloid to digital. With the release of celluloid films in digital format, there is a huge interest and market for old films opening up. However, unlike the books, this restoration or conversion of films from analogue to digital medium is heavily hampered. Reason, the digital print is as good or bad as its original celluloid negative or print which is available. In most cases the negative is not available or print has been badly stored..
World over, when the film productions turned digital and celluloid laboratories got closed, very few stored their library of negatives or prints in specialized vaults as archival materials. For instance in India, National Film Archive of India (NFAI) has facilities to keep celluloid negatives and print in pristine conditions for use in future, but the erstwhile Directorate of films festivals which keeps prints of all award winning movies in the celluloid era had no such facilities unless their godowns got filled and they moved the old prints to the National Film Archive. Celluloid negatives and prints had to be kept in air conditioned vaults away from heat and dust , if they have to be used for making digital copies in future.
With restoration of old classics and historically important films being in vogue these days, there is frantic search for locating old films to digitize them for the new market. A representative of Chennai based Prasad laboratories which specializes in such restorations says, most labs in India have destroyed their celluloid negative and print libraries, unless the producer or the director took it away to safer places like NFAI. Adoor Goplakrishnan is among the few filmmakers who have moved all the celluloid negatives and prints to NFAI for safe keeping, as he was aware of the future needs of these prints as a filmmaker. So are the films of MGR in Tamil Nadu, since some of them are still used in the State for political and election campaign purposes.
According to Ramu Aravindan, the son of late G Aravindan, he and the team of Film Heritage Foundation of India (FHFI) had a difficult time restoring Thampu ( Tent ) and Kummatty ( Bogeyman) of his father. The available prints were in bad shape and no one knew the whereabouts of the negatives.
The issue becomes much more complicated for colour films as celluloid colours can bleed if not kept in proper conditions. However black white films, like Apu Trilogy of Satyajit Ray restored by Criterion of USA, had an advantage as negatives though damaged and prints were available in London vaults of the British Film Archive and with Bengali speaking resources they could undertake a good job to make the Ray classics “ better than the original” for future generations.
For instance a good restoration can take away the humming of the magnetic sound track of the celluloid and also remove grains in the films of the celluloid era. Also a keen restorer can make the light and shades in black and white celluloid movies alive in such a way, one feels it has been shot in digital format. The restored “ Pather Panchali” stands testimony to this process. The film’s light and shades of trees and movements of characters in it get a rebirth digitally, and one can see the ripples in the pond in the film more clearly and beautifully and hear the hustling of the leaves better than in a celluloid print. This has been made possible by frame by frame digital restoration by the passionate team of Criterion with available negatives and prints.
Unfortunately, Thampu did not get such extensive treatment as the light and shadows in the film and some of the humming of the magnetic sound track were beyond digital redemption as the available print was in bad condition. However, the specialists at the Italian Laboratory at Bologna did the best possible job they could with the print. In India Prasad laboratories, at Chennai which is into the restoration and digitizing undertook, the Classic David Lean film “Lawrence of Arabia” for Hollywood. As the Americans were quality conscious, it is said Prasad laboratory had to send every ten minutes of the digitized film for approval of Hollywood studio involved.
In Malayalam, few films like Spadikam, and Manichitrathazhu and Devadoothan have been restored and digitized for theatre releases. More celluloid films are being restored and digitized for a re-run in theaters. The issue is the availability of negatives and good prints which very few popular films have in good quality. As the world of digital films moves from 4 k to 8 k format technology allows even improvement of sound track, one can even hope to hear fresh sounds in many films. However, just as celluloid negatives and prints, legal digital rights of many of these films were sold for peanuts soon after its release and conditions involved in such rights can also be a bottleneck for a re-run in cinema houses for old films.
However, the restoration process is focused on meaningful films of master filmmakers, be it Ray, Ritwik Ghattak or Guru Dutt from India or David Leans of the world. According to Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of FHFI, they are concentrating more on regional films in India, to showcase India’s rich regional film culture, with funding from Martin Scorsese foundation of USA to develop world heritage of great and historic films. Online pay channels like Criterion of USA have already developed a market for such films, by acquiring classic films across the world and showcasing it for the future generations. The recent films FHFI restored included Manthan of Shyam Benegal ( Hindi), Ghadasatra of Girish Kasaravalli ( Kannada) and Maya Mriga of Nirad Mahapatra ( Oriya).
In India such a process is yet to happen in a significant manner though the Central Government has started a Film Heritage project with NFAI. With the merger of NFAI with NFDC, which is a corporation, such high budget projects are bound to be shelved. NFAI, true to its mandate, had already digitized many of the films available with it. Films of Adoor and John Abraham have been digitized and some of them even pirated for you- tube by certain groups. As the rights of these films are not clear or can be disputed many are making a quick buck by uploading them on you tube views and earnings.
The world has entered the digital age. Our films too have, but the celluloid, analogue era films whose negatives or prints have been archived properly and whose rights for digitization are clearly accessed might get a digital reincarnation for future generations. Others, however great they are, will remain in memories of a generation or digital records. For instance national award winning 1965 Malayalam film Chemmen used to have a rerun in theatres till the end of the 70s, thanks to the popularity of the novel on which it was based and the national awards the film had. No idea who has the negatives or prints and rights as the film is a historic one due to its first national award for best film of 1965 and also a trend setting film of the 60s which had a huge box office success.
