84 Celluloid Man

[antnield]

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's highly acclaimed 2012 documentary Celluloid Man on the beloved film archivist P.K. Nair, founder and guardian of the National Film Archive of India, will be released in 2014 according to the latest newsletter.

[What A Disgrace]

March 24

[antnield]

Artwork:

[Bikey]

Delighted to report that Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's CELLULOID MAN has won a special jury award at the Mumbai International Film Festival. Archivist P.K. Nair - on whose life and work the film is based - collected the award on behalf of the filmmaker to a rousing standing ovation.

[Bikey]

David Jenkins reviews in the latest Little White Lies

[Bikey]

Full details of this release now up at our website

[Bikey]

David Parkinson's full review from Radio Times:

"Paramesh Krishnan Nair is the Indian Henri Langlois and the National Film Archive in Pune is his Cinémathèque Française. In the course of a 50-year career, PK has scoured the subcontinent for rare pictures and it is thanks to this dogged collector that nine silent films have survived (sadly out of 1700), including the country's first feature, Dadasaheb Phalke's Raja Harishchandra (1913). But, in addition to the 8000 films produced by the Bollywood mainstream, the masters of Parallel Cinema and the unsung auteurs of India's numerous regional industries, Nair also amassed 4000 foreign films and clips from 34 classics are included in Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's handsome tribute. It speaks much for Nair's achievement and influence that such luminaries as Yash Chopra, Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Girish Kasaravalli and Krzysztof Zanussi were so eager to sing his praises. But, while Nair's story fascinates, this epic documentary is most useful as a crash course in Indian cinema." **** (4 stars)

[manicsounds]

DVDBeaver

Very strange to have burned in subtitles, during the English-speaking moments

[TMDaines]

I don't know how much English there is, but maybe it was the only source they could viably use? Are the subtitles burnt into the video or are they merely forced subtitles? In fairness, their website does give a heads-up that the subtitles are fixed, which is refreshingly honest.

[Bikey]

It was indeed the only viable source we could use. The only HD materials available has fixed subtitles, but in all honesty given the variety of dialects, accents and languages spoken throughout the film, the subtitles are both helpful and necessary.
In an ideal world we would of course prefer a 'subtitle on/off' option, but given the choice between that and not releasing the film at all, there's no contest. Especially given that the material is otherwise pristine (excepting the fact that many of the extremely rare clips within the film are from much older and once-neglected print sources) and that this is the first release anywhere in the world on home video of this fascinating and passionate doc.

[Bikey]

Backseat Mafia review

[Bikey]

Michael Ewins' E-Film blog review

[Bikey]

Michael Ewins' interview with CELLULOID MAN director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur

[Bikey]

A four-star review from CineVue

[Bikey]

Cinematic Investigations

[Bikey]

Celluloid Man: Preserving the heritage of Indian cinema - by Tom Birchenough at The Arts Desk

[MichaelB]

I don't know how much English there is, but maybe it was the only source they could viably use? Are the subtitles burnt into the video or are they merely forced subtitles? In fairness, their website does give a heads-up that the subtitles are fixed, which is refreshingly honest.

They're burned into the original print (for polemical reasons, the film was shot on 16mm instead of digital video), but the upside of that is that they're pretty small and discreet - it's nothing like the situation with certain Artificial Eye Blu-rays where the compulsory electronic subtitles are distractingly bright, sharp and large.

In other words, they're easy enough to tune out - but I found them surprisingly useful. As it turns out, most of the film is in English, but there are some very strong accents and eccentric/convoluted idioms in there, as well as a lot of namechecking people, places and films, many of which inevitably sound nothing like the way you expect them to when you see them written down.

[Bikey]

Cinehouse

[Bikey]

Close-Up Film

[Bikey]

Peek-a-boo Magazine

[MichaelB]

CineOutsider:

The two-and-a-half hour length on paper may seem to be a little excessive for such a documentary, but it's easily justified by the scope of the story and the sheer range of interviews that Dungarpur has secured, many of which have been cut down to a single and often brief contribution. But every one of them adds something to this beguiling portrait – the quotes reproduced here are just a small sampling of those I noted down on my second viewing for potential use within this review. There's not a wasted recollection or anecdote here, and I have a feeling that if Dungarpur had been able to include every bit of worthwhile interview material then Celluloid Man would have run for the good part of a day.

[manicsounds]

thedigitalfix review

[Bikey]

Reviewed in the latest Sight & Sound

[manicsounds]

Glad that Second Run released this. Now what are the chances of Second Run releasing some old school Indian movies that are featured in the doc?

[Bikey]

We wish that were possible manic - we would love to! But so many great unreleased films out there and so little time...