Bandhan (1998)- English subtitles. 165 minutes. Dolby Digital 2 channel mono.
Starring Salman Khan, Jackie Shroff, Shweta Menon, Rambha, Ashwini
Bhave.
Video is excellent. Audio is very good.
"Bandhan" is a melodramatic and sexy film of the bonds between brother (Khan) and sister (Bhave), husband (Shroff) and wife (Bhave) that are tested to the breaking point by outside forces (the stunning Shweta Menon, who steals the movie as the seductress Vaishali), and the struggle to maintain those bonds.
"Bandhan" has Khan in some exciting action scenes and features some fine songs, especially the excellent "Tere Naina" and the risque dance by Menon of "Dil Kis Ko." The video is an excellent, bright transfer with few faults. It's a shame that "Bandhan" wasn't made with 5.1 or stereo sound, yet the mono soundtrack is very good and clear considering.
Although a box office and critical flop when released, "Bandhan" is worth viewing on dvd for the memorable music and interesting performances by Shroff and Bhave, and especially for Shweta Menon's sensuous portrayal of the "fallen woman" Vaishali. Released by EROS/DEI.. Irwin Marin
Rangeela - 1995 - Media Digital -no subtitles
Urmilla , Amir Khan , Jackie
Picture quality - Excellent
Sound quality - Excellent -Digital 4 channel
Music -A R Rahman
Director - Ram Gopal Verma (same as Satya)
A very young looking , very beautiful and very short skirted Urmilla - who would think it was the same woman in Satya ! ? How do people watch a film they have never seen before on DVD ? I tend to watch all the songs and then bits of the movie over a couple of days . The only disadvantage is that you get a good idea of the ending before the start. Not that it matters too much . The songs , dances , dialog , dresses , background props more than the story are really what makes these movies so entertaining .
This film is about the making of a Bollywood movie - a comedy about what the producer and director have to go through with actresses and their mothers . Pity it is not subtitled by the new boys in town - Media Digital . There is slight color bleed in the scenes with high light levels but otherwise its just about perfect. I prefer Anu Malik's music above that of ARR but the songs in this one are fairly good and beautifully picturized.If they could subtilte the dialog and all the songs accurately as was done in Sikander ka Muqaddar they would have huge sales from video stores and libraries.
I would suggest subtitling in English , Hindi ,Urdu , Arabic and Spanish . It probably costs only a few hundred dollars to get all those done and expand the potential market a hundredfold...
Satya - 1998 - Eros DEI - English subtitles Bhajpai , Chakrabotty , Urmilla , Paresh Rawal Picture quality - Very good Sound- Perfect , Dolby 5.1
What pleasure it is to hear such crystal clear sound - this I think must be the best Bollywood or even Hollywood mastered disc for sound quality .
An excellent review by Ali Ikram on
http://www.indolink.com/bollywood/mvierevs.html.
The Police were not happy about this movie saying it glamorized the criminals in the Mumbai Underworld who indulge in all sorts of extortion rackets , contract killings and then dream of escaping to Dubai but I think its quite the opposite .
Its Bollywood movies which have in fact glamorized criminals , showing them living in huge houses with pretty women and endless parties , whereas here they live in the grimy flats of Bombay -nasty brutal and short lives and no-one in his right mind would want to copy them .
The English subtitling is very good and accurate but I would urge them to be even more literal . For example some of the underlying menace is taken away when its translated as ' What do you think now I have got the better of you , what shall I do with you ' when one gangster gets the better of the other and has a knife in his hand . What he really says is ' .. shall I take your liver out ! ' or another scene where the guy says ' I know him since he was a child ' what he actually says is ' I have known him since he was in nappies ' a bit more personal and colorful . Of course f words neednt be translated.
What is the matter with the guys at DEI , why cant the songs which with repeating verses are only about 10 lines long be translated ? . Some of the words being Marathi I didnt recognize but if somebody posts the lyrics I will have a go at the translation .
I am really glad that although this is semi art movie there are still five songs - they do make the movie a lot more entertaining . The best is of course the first 'Golee maar bheje me , ' - 'Shoot a bullet in this guy's skull , watch the brains spilling out' - or something like that . It must be a woman's worst nightmare watching the men dance around like this , slobs in vests drinking beer and pouring it over each other.
All the actors are just fantastic in their roles . The gangster chief's wife who is very unlike most Indian wives who will bear any injustice and touch their husband's feet - well this one not only nags him in front of his men , she even beats him up at times !
Chaku is the other guy who in Daud was smitten with Urmilla and here as the music director asks her when she is applying for a job as a singer ' Apart from your talent what else have you got to offer me ? ' not realising that she is a contract killer's girlfriend !
This movie has not been on general release on the big screen in the West - not easy to get to anyway -and is one I would have never seen as I have refused to watch 'original' VHS and would have missed a gem like this if it had not been out on DVD. It gives a much more authentic feel of Bombay life than Bollywood movies . It really is a must see -compulsive watching ..Mo
SATYA- DEI/EROS-1998, 5.1 dolby digital,english subtitles,175 minutes.
The latest dvd release from DEI/EROS is Ram Gopal Verma's critically acclaimed crime drama "Satya" and it is given a first-class treatment which is, of late, becoming commonplace from DEI/EROS.
Giving the dvd consumer more than a no-frills product, which companies like Superdigital and WEG have been dumping on the consumer, is one sure way to attract and keep new customers. For instance, where else can you get such cool main menu graphics like they give you in the "Satya" dvd. Press DVD menu and you get an image of "Satya" star J.D.Chakravarthy pointing a gun straight at you. Select an option and you hear the sound of 3 gunshots followed by smoke oozing out the gun barrel and a jigsaw puzzle dismantling of the image as you head to your destination. Subtitles, song menu, chapter index, play movie, upcoming dvd releases, and details of currently available dvd releases are available at your fingertips.
Set in Mumbai, this is the story of Satya (Chakravorty) who comes to the big city to earn a living but is soon drawn into the Mumbai underworld. He eventually meets and falls in love with Vidya (Urmilla Matondkar, excellent in a small role) which complicates the life he has been living and what he hopes for their future. "Satya" is a violent and realistic crime drama with excellent perfomances by all. Expertly directed by Verma, one of bollywood's most inventive directors.
The video picture is excellent, on par with DEI/EROS superbly done "Soldier." The 5.1 audio is in a word- sensational. During a violent gun battle with police, bullets fly from speaker to speaker, from front to back and side to side. It was so realistic I almost felt like ducking for cover, myself. The backgrond music by Vishal is stirring, and the songs are melodious and memorable. Especially "Gholi Mar", "Sapne Mein," and "Baadlon Se." Lata Mangeshkar and the other singers excel.
A must-have dvd. "Satya" is not yet available at most outlets, but can be purchased directly from DEI at: www.indianfilmsdvd.com ..Irwin Mann ( in fact Satya is now availble from www.indiaplaza.com , www.scan.co.uk and others)
Starring: Urmila Matondkar and introducing Chakravarthy Director: Ram Gopal Varma Music: Vishal
SATYA is a truly excellent, completely atypical Indian film. It's a gangster movie (a "triad" movie if you will) with the values of an art movie. The story is gripping, the photography and acting are great, the setting is realistic, and unlike most Indian films, the action scenes are done well.
Non-Hindi speakers will be able to appreciate the visual and musical aspects of the film, but will be frustrated at not being able to understand the dialogue, even though the overall story is still comprehensible. I really hope this movie gets subtitled and released in American theatres. Ironically, I think SATYA will appeal more to western audiences than to Indian ones.
Although the soundtrack album is very good, the movie actually has very little singing and dancing in it. It's mostly a straight western-style drama, with the music played in the background. In the two lone dance numbers, the director seems to deliberately flaunt Indian film conventions. In one number, instead of good-looking actors in gorgeous costumes dancing to elaborate choreography, we get scruffy, undershirted gangsters goofing around in a bar. In both numbers, the mouth-to-voice matching is very careless so that men end up mouthing to women's voices, individuals mouth to choruses, etc. -- as if to say "this is all very silly, you know." I got the feeling the director wanted to make a non-musical, but was required to put in dance numbers by commercial forces.
Also non-standard is that the intermission comes about 2 hours into the film and the second part only runs for a half-hour or so. Ram Gopal Varma also directed the films SHIVA, DROHI, RAAT, RANGEELA, DAUD and the upcoming KAUN. If SATYA is any indication, they should all be worth checking out.
Highly recommended Rave reviews (which include plot summaries):
http://www.indiabollywood.com/filmreview/satya.htm
http://www.planetbollywood.com/Film/satya.html
http://www.indiaworld.co.in/open/rec/films/new.html
http://www.indolink.com/bollywood/mvierevs.html
And one not-rave, but which still agrees it's excellently made: http://www.indiamovies.com/darmi.htm
(I don't agree with the criticisms in this review. I think the reviewer just didn't get it, but it may echo the feelings of the average Indian filmgoer.)..Kent Johnson
But, without taking away any credit from Ramu (director), Satya is engaging becoz of ManojBajpai's Outstanding performance. as the local underworld don (character which is rumoured to have traces of ArunGawli). The last time a new actor gave such a mesmerising performance on his debut was NanaPatekar and that was ages ago. All the time, you feel that this guy is living the role , rather than acting it. It bestows the movie with credibility and raises it above the usual underworld yarn.
Another unique aspect of Satya is the dialogues. It's filled with punch and has those gags which lightens up a tense scene. Check out for the scene, when Manoj's gang goes to collect "Hafta"- where the sidekick cracks a joke which almost puts u in a light mood, but a violent ambush brutually cuts it short. Or the scene which has Manoj torturing a rival gang member,whereas the gang members around manoj casually joke and rag chakri about Urmila, Gotta mention about the "Chu*ya" dialogues - wondering how it got past the censors! No doubt, it's a commonly used slang and gives the interaction between characters a "natural" look, but what did Ramu offer to get it past the fickle censorboard?
Satya scores on the technical aspects too. Photography is good and jells well with the different moods of the movie. Ramu got a Cinematographer from outside to get a "outsider perspective" of Bombay. There isn't too much experimentation - lighting etc.
Editing is another highlight. As i mentioned before, there is hardly a dull moment, except for the short period where two songs follows each other in rapid succession. Songs are OK. I liked the Background score better. It's a pity that Background music is hardly given any importance in our films, whereas it has a great role in enhancing the affect of a scene. Satya has a good Bg score.
On to the acting credits. We see a different Urmila here. A sariclad, demure character. No, there are no "dream scenes sneaked in to show her dancing Rangeela style" :-) . She has given a decent performance. Chakri barely manages to scrape thru as Satya. He lacks the screen presence or personality to enact "sunnydeol" type of role.
But, the director has used him Smartly; he hardly speaks in the movie (must be some record) and most of the scenes are (deliberately?) dominated by Manoj or Urmila, whenever they are around. In effect, Ramu seems to have converted a major liability into an asset, by making Chakri a passive pivot around whom the film revolves. A movie worth a look; Considering the drought of engaging movies around, it is Definitely worth a visit. cheers.. raj
What a wondeful actress Urmilla is ! , matched in her range of facial expressions perhaps only by Tabu . DVD is a great way of learning acting -just watch the expressions on her face when she finds out that her boyfriend is a killer - impossible not to feel her pain and cry along with her .
What makes this movie so hard hitting is the finality of death shown . One minute the people are joking and playing with their families and the next minute they are dead . Unlike Bollywood movies the killing here is not trying to disarm or challenge a man but as must happen in real life shooting him from the back.
What is about bullets that the killing is so efficient - just watch a big buck crumple after being hit - it must be massive internal damage and bleeding , even so it does seem very fast ..One thing worth watching out in Satya using the slow speed is the huge bronze relief paintings in the house of the politician . One is a three headed God I didnt recognize , it looked like Buddha and the other I think Krishna and Arjuna in the chariots - the horses rearing up on their feet gives this sculpture a real dynamic apperance . Anybody know what the 'return' button on the DVD remote is used for ?..
Evergreen song hits- vol 1 - WEG -no subtitles Picture quality --Excellent to not so good Sound quality - Exellent to not so good . Much better than previous song collections from the same group . Lala dupate wali from Ankhen will probably be everyone's favourite - some of the lyrics are decidely risque . Madhuri doing 'Joota hai Jaipani' is also good .. One must deplore these collections of hits , many times as with Superdigital ones the same songs are repackaged . Far better to have ALL the songs of say four movies - 20 odd songs -on one DVD - mastered from the original negative and with the lyrics subtitled accurately in the six languages I have mentioned before. Imagine the number of DVDs they would sell in Middle East and other areas where these songs are so popular ..
English and Arabic subtitles on print, 172
minutes, Full Screen.
Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Rishi
Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Parveen Babi, Helen.
Dialogue by Kader Khan. Music
is by Laaxmikant Pyarelal.
Playback singers: Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed
Rafi, and others.
Picture Quality: Good.
Audio: Good 2 channel mono.
Released by Baba Traders of Queens, NY.
The print used has seen better days, yet overall has very good definition and color retention. Scratches and blemishes are present, however, especially during reel changes of the film.
AAA is a wild, action-packed, and relentlessly illogical story of three brothers who are separated from their parents at a young age through some unfortunate and unbelievable circumstances: the mother becomes blind from a falling branch and the father exchanges places with his tormentors after crashing down a steep hill in their car filled with gold and escaping without a scratch with the booty.
It would take forever to relate the twists and turns and U-turns in the script. One wild scene has the 3 grown-up brothers giving blood to an unknown sick woman - their mother! The script, with plots and subplots galore, has more holes than swiss cheese. Yet, if you're willing to suspend disbelief, just sit back and enjoy the star power of the 3 stars, the memorable award-winning songs and picturizations of them. Especially Amitabh's latin excursion- the wild and campy "My Name is Anthony Gonzalves.".. Irwin Marin.
1980s
Salma Agha , Raj Babbar English subtitles including the
songs
Pirate DVD
Picture quality - very good ,dual layer
Sound-very good .
A very interesting Muslim social drama . Its about a man who
in anger divorces his wife three times by saying 'talaq' .
She then has to marry another according to religious custom
before she can marry him again . Well she marries his best
friend and complications start when she starts preferring
the new husband .
It is great to hear to perfect Urdu spoken by Pakistani actress Salma Agha -for example she says 'mooaf ' for forgive me , instead of the customary 'maaf' in Bollywood movies .
Another feature is the songs of Noorjehan . Why does she sound so much better in Bollywood movies than she does in Pakistani ones ?
The subtitling cannot be turned off as it is on the print . It is great that they have taken the trouble to subtitle the songs - I think they have been reading Ramli !- and OK its not 100% accurate -once again I think they should translate it literally rather than trying to find an equivalent English phrase - but it does give a sense of what the songs are about , and songs are very important in these movies as they move the story along or give it a new twist .
Let me make a suggestion to the pirates . Why not go legit and buy the rights for these older movies either outright or on a commision basis ? . Then do an excellent mastering from the original negative ( this one is quite watcheable and far better than the legit 'Sholay' ) and put in subtitles -accurate and literal in English , Spanish , Arabic . And also in Hindi and Urdu which are easy because its just transcribing the script but would prove very popular with NRIs and NRPs to teach their kids how to read the languages . With over 2000 Bollywood movies waiting to come on to DVD there is enough room for everyone .
There are a couple of points worth mentioning about this pirate DVD . Firstly it really does add greatly to the enjoyment of a movie if the sound has been done properly . Its not perfect in this movie but it still sounds a lot better than superdigital ones , and they need to work harder at it .
Second they have enabled the lastmemo button (unlike Superdigital) so one can leave the movie at a point and the disc will then remember it and play from there .
In those days they didnt think it worthwhile mentioning the playback singers names but there is marvellous ghazal in here which thanks to Zee's Saregama I think is sung by one of the Judges on it -Mehdi Hassan or Ghulam Ali 'chupke chupke' . The disc is worth buying just to hear that.
Another is a song in which the hero plays on a beautiful silver brown Sitar and they show the finger movements up close and with the slow function on DVD one can really see how the strings are plucked .
There is no need to put music lessons on DVD Rom . Even on ordinary DVD with all the functions -still step , slow motion etc . it is the ideal medium to teach classical music ..
This is another movie in glorious full screen , fills every inch of the large screen TV - forget about widescreen peering at little figures or the half way letterbox versions , this full screen is what humans were meant to see !. Lets have more people who have seen this DVD compare it with the widescreen ones .
The visual impact of full screen adds another dimension to movie watching . This is a must have disc . Absoulely gorgeous palace scenes with fabulous fabulous dresses - I cant even imagine what they must have spent on the sets . If you want to see South Asian costumes , furniture , interior decoration at its best then get this DVD.
Equally fabulous are the gypsie camp scenes and dances . Pran , Zeenat Aman , Dharmendra , Neetu Singh and the song 'Oh meri mehbooba , tuje jana hai to ja ' .. does anybody need another excuse to watch a movie ?
Wish Bollywood would get off this current romance and gangster stuff and make a few more palace dramas like this one . If you like this DVD and want Sai digital to master more of them then write to digitalbase@hotmail.com
Well done Saidigital ! Lets have more classics on DVD and please put on the subtitles in English , Arabic , Hindi , Urdu and Spanish and literal translation and of the songs..
Ever noticed that your television is basically a square? The only way to see the entire movie on a standard TV is to put it in the centre and have black bars at the top and bottom.
FORGET the short term impact of full screen and open your eyes to see what you are missing. Don't spread crap like this - the only way to appreciate a movie is to watch the ENTIRE film and with a standard television and "full screen", one cannot do this. Pan and Scan backers are normally the ones that say "I can't see the difference between VHS and DVD".
I acknowledge that you are an avid dvd supporter, but wanting full screen titles isn't the best thing for the format. DVD is meant to convert "Joe Six Packs" into knowledgeable movie watchers. Saying that letterbox versions are "halfway" is ridiculous. In my mind, fullscreen versions are "halfway" because they brutally destroy the years of hard work put in by the director and cinematographers.
I hate having to deal with "Joe Six Packs" when they come over and I show them a dvd. "What are those black bars covering up? Is your TV defective?" I seriously hope that the public gets educated, otherwise we will see the "VHSifcation" of dvd - pan and scan, no extras, etc. Besides, you will have to start living with black bars on all of your "full screen" dvd's once HDTV becomes the norm in a few years. All of your full screen discs will have black bars on the sides! hahaha :-).. zed@pathcom.com