Blu-ray Review: Dil To Pagal Hai (YRF)

sanjay0864

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Yash Raj's decision to impose logo 'watermarks' is quite regrettable and reprehensible. Specially, since we had thought that they had listened to their customers and finally gotten rid of this obnoxious practise. :mad:

Title: Dil To Pagal Hai
Year: 1997
BD Release: 2010
IMDB Rating: 6.6
Category: Comedy | Musical | Drama | Romance
Distributor: YRF Home Entertainment
Authoring House: ?
MRP: Rs. 599/-
Running Time: 02:59:38 hrs
Chapters: 34
Media: Main Feature - 50GB BD
Region Coding: A/B/C
Video:
2.35:1, HD 1080p 16:9, AVC 24Hz
Peak Bitrate 39Mbps | Average bitrate 30Mbps
Audio:
1/2 Hindi - Dolby Digital 5.1 (48khz 384kbps) :confused:
2/2 Hindi - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48khz) <-- Default Track :thumbsup:
Subtitles: <-- NOT 2.35:1 Screen Friendly (Positioned below the picture area) :mad:
1/2 English
2/2 Arabic
Special Features: Presented on separate DVD in 4x3 Standard Definition. :clapping:
1. Scenes from the Filmfare Awards
2. The Making
3. TV Promos
4. Theatrical Trailer
5. Millenium Mix

Special Mention:
Watermark Logos are present, either at the begining, or the middle, of all songs. But not anywhere else in the movie. Also the logo 'watermark' is there only briefly for a few seconds.<-- With Yash Raj, it seems like "one step forward two steps back". :mad:
No scrolling advertisements during songs or otherwise. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.
No advertisements, forced or otherwise, during the movie. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.
Separate 'Song Menu' to allow direct selection of song. <-- This should be a no brainer for all Bollywood films.
The movie starts automatically after the staple FBI and Statuatory Warnings. <-- A feature that I have been championing, in most of my reviews. :)

Review:
Although, I found most of this film, to be quite juvenile in it's projection of love. I have still, always enjoyed it for several reasons. For one, Madhuri Dixit has never looked better and has certainly never been dressed better. Also, I quite like the songs of the movie, even though there is not one single song I'd classify as a 'classic'. After watching the film, after a gap of quite a few years, I think, it still holds up well enough.

As for the picture quality of this Blu-ray. This, to date, is definately the most difficult and frustrating Blu-ray, to rate and review. Difficult, because the picture quality is very inconsistent. Frustrating, because, one can clearly see, how it could have been so much better, if only the DNR demons had not been allowed to almost devour the film of it's sharpness and detail. There are times while watching, that I found myself thinking, for a 'thirteen' year old movie, this is pretty good and then the very next moment I would be thinking, what in the world happened to make the picture look so ordinary and plasticy. During one scene in the film, I commented out aloud, "Madhuri looks so artificial in this scene" and my 'eight' year old son, who was watching the fiilm with me, remarked, it looks like she is made of wax. I think that about sums up one of the major problems with the picture on this Blu-ray. The heavy usage of DNR has robbed the picture of sharpness and detail. There is also an issue in certain scenes, where the picture is quite out of focus, or atleast seems to be. Considering that 'Manmohan Singh' was one of the premier cinematographers of his time, I seriously doubt that the problem is in the original film and I can only conclude that once again, it is the work of the DNR demons. The colors too are very inconsistent and at times are quite dull and drab. But there are times when the colors actually look quite good. For the major part, the picture quality is decent enough, but then along come several portions where the picture looks very ordinary and at times even bad.

Regarding the audio I would like to clarify a few things to begin with. Yash Raj has the original audio stems, of the soundtrack of this movie. Thus, they could have actually remixed the sound if they cared enough, to be far better than what is delivered on this BD. Also, do keep in mind, that unlike 'DDLJ', which was released only in analog Dolby SR, this movie was originally released with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The sound mix, as it comes across on this Blu-ray, is better than 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' but then, that is not saying much and would be quite expected. The audio, during some of the songs, sounds very tinny and even shrill at times, further highlighted by the lack of bass. A perfect example being, the first song 'Ek Duje KE Vaaste' during the credits. Although, upon listening and comparing the songs in the movie with the original cd of the soundtrack, I realize that the CD itself, lacked depth and punch. In fact I remember always having been dissapointed with the very low amount of bass on the CD. Thus, keeping that in mind, I'd say the overall audio on this BD is satisfactory enough. But it just does not have the punch and depth that one expects from a film, which although thirteen yrs old, was made in the digital age.

Is this the unmitigated disaster that some of us thought it might be, ie. based on the posted screenshots? The answer is, definately not. Is it a "total let down"? Again, probably not. But, is it dissapointing? Most certainly, yes. This is one title, that I, as I am sure many others, have been looking forward to. Considering that this movie, is probably the last decent work of Yash Chopra himself. Not counting 'Veer Zaara', for, that in my opinion, was quite banal. Add to that, the huge success of the film and that it stars, two of the most successfull actors, of the last 25 yrs. It is but natural to expect, that 'YRF Home Entertainment' would have spared no efforts to make this BD, the best it could be. Alas, it is not to be and this remains far from what could have been a great BD if only 'Yash Raj' had given it the love and care it demanded. To make matters worse and to add to the disappoinment of the audio/video quality, 'Yash Raj' has regressed to their old ugly habit of putting their logo 'watermarks' during the songs. I only hope that this BD was authored prior to the last released 'two' BDs and it does not signal a permanent return to this obnoxious practise. All in all, I am dissapointed with this Blu-ray. But as we all know, this is probably the best we will get of this movie, atleast until the next new format is introduced. Thus for Madhuri fans and fans of this movie, I suggest we hold on to our copies. 'RECOMMENDED' but with caution.

Authoring screw ups:
1. In the song menu: The first song link, instead of taking you to the start of the song 'EK Duje Ke Vaaste' (Title sequence), it takes you all the way to the begining of the film, ie. all the way to the 'Censor Board' Certificate. This forces you to watch 1:54 minutes, of the 'censor board certificate', credits, Yash Raj films intro logo, the very boring and juvenile, banter about "what love is", between Shah Rukh & Madhuri, before the actual, 3:00 minute, song starts.
2. In the song menu, there is no option to access the second page of the song menu, by clicking left. Instead, one has to click the 'right' button, 'six' times, to access the second page. Similiarly, one cannot go to the first page, by clicking right, from the last (twelfth) song, either. Atleast, they are consistent in their logic, as consumer unfriendly as it might be.
3. In the song menu: Actually, there is no way to go from the second page to the first page of the song menu. For, once you click your way, to the second page of the song menu, even if you click left, to go back to the first page, it actually takes you to the first page of the 'Scenes' menu.

PS: Don't these people, even bother to view the 'check disc', before sending it for final production? It is frustrating to have to suffer through authoring errors, on almost 'all' Indian BDs, due to the ineptness or should I say, total disregard of professional obligations. Obviously, to these people, it's only about the money and they take absolutely no pride in their work.

My ratings:
Movie: 3.75 out of 5.0
Video: 3.4 out of 5.0
Audio: 3.5 out of 5.0
Extras: 3.75 out of 5.0
Overall: 3.25 out of 5.0 (Poor packaging keeps the score from being higher. Why can't 'YRF Home Entertainment' use the standard, double disc, slim Blu-ray cases that almost the entire BD world uses?)
The overall score reduced due to authoring issues, and even more importantly due to the presence of logo 'watermarks' during songs, albeit only for short durations, but they simply should not be there.



Screenshots courtesy DDR

Equipment used for testing:
Projector: Panasonic PT-AE2000U
Screen: Da-Lite 4:3 120" 'Model B' - White Matte
Viewing Distance: 11' 6"
A/V Receiver: Denon AVR5800
Speakers: 5.1
Front/Main: Paradigm Reference 100 v2
Center: Paradigm Reference Studio CC v2
Rear: Tannoy - Mercury M5
Subwoofer: Paradigm Reference Servo 15
BD Player:
Oppo BDP-83 (Hardware Modified 'Region Free' with 'BDP-83-48-1224' firmware)
PS3 (80GB US 'Region A' with firmware v3.30)
 
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Sanjay - I found this movie entirely regrettable and reprehensible. But your review on the bluray is pretty insightful.
 
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^^ Add to that pathetic, dragged, repetative, deplorable......running short of adj....
 
This is not a movie review. Rather, as the title very clearly states, it is a review of the Blu-ray, that too, of a thirteen year old movie. So if you don't care for the movie, why would you even bother to read this thread, let alone post in it? Seriously, I am at a total loss, to understand your objective or motive here. If you have any comments regarding, specifically this Blu-ray and/or my review, please make them here. Otherwise, in case you wish to discuss this post, or anything else, then I suggest, you please do it elsewhere.
 
sanjay0864;138861[b said:
Review:[/b]
Although, I found most of this film, to be quite juvenile in it's projection of love. I have still, always enjoyed it for several reasons. For one, Madhuri Dixit has never looked better and has certainly never been dressed better. Also, I quite like the songs of the movie, even though there is not one single song I'd classify as a 'classic'. After watching the film, after a gap of quite a few years, I think, it still holds up well enough.

As for the picture quality of this Blu-ray. This, to date, is definately the most difficult and frustrating Blu-ray, to rate and review. ...........

hi sanjay0864,

great review. As always, I really appreciate your attention to detail and your attempt to be as objective as possible.

cheers

Kapil
 
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Kapil, try not to repeat a long post if you are NOT replying to specific points. It makes going through the thread difficult for others, as well as take up enormous space on HFV servers. Usually a few words of the first line with '.....' added are enough to refer to the post.

Cheers
 
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