On Dadasaheb Phalke’s 152nd birth anniversary, we step into the area where lost heritage of Indian cinema is revived back to life
Technicians scan an old film reel
At the Film Heritage Foundation’s (FHF) office in Tardeo, this writer is greeted by framed posters of old classics like The Third Man and Nosferatu; they act as a marker of their quest to celebrate the past. Founded in 2014, the FHF restores films to reel and digital formats for future preservation.
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The closeup of a strip being glued
For the common man, restoration is an esoteric act. Our curiosity was to understand this act. While we expected white lab coats, dark film rooms and sanitised hallways, we encountered spools of film reels around people poring over frames with lenses. Phalke would have been at home here. The process of restoration, founder Shivendra Singh Dungarpur tells us, depends heavily on the survival of the original print or the first copy. In the fiscal corner-cutting Indian film industry, prints were copied directly from the original in droves for theatrical distribution, he explains. The result was torn original film reels, over-exposure and irreparable damage. The quality also suffers the further the copy is from the original print.
Shakespeare examines a new strip. Pics/Ashish Raje
The difficult part is sourcing the right quality prints. Once discovered, these prints are brought back to the lab to be scanned. The scanning precedes the laboratory work of meticulously scanning through film reels for each frame, finding flaws and fixing them. Two individuals key to this process are Shakespeare and Pravin Singh Sisodiya, who is India’s only film repairer. Despite having earned acclaim since 2014 — Christopher Nolan worked with the Foundation to hold a workshop in 2018 — it is hard going. As a non-profit organisation, they reply on partnerships with national and international film labs. The International Federation of Film Archives, Martin Scorsese-led Film Foundation and the Cineteca di Bologna are regular collaborators.
As cinephiles move to OTT platforms, the charm of hearing an old film reel whirr in the projector is special. Such sanctuaries offer hope to preserve these reels for coming generations.
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