Pyaasa, Guru Dutt’s timeless cult classic, has been restored to its original quality for the Venice Film Festival that opens on September 2.
The 1957 film, starring Guru Dutt, an ethereal Waheeda Rehman and Mala Sinha, will compete with 20 other prestigious restored films from across the world for the coveted Venice Classics Award for best restored film, at the 72nd Venice Film Festival.
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Also produced and directed by Guru Dutt, Pyaasa (thirst) traces the sad, but beautiful journey of a young poet who is disowned by his family and is rejected by society as well. The film was written by Abrar Alvi and had cinematography by V. K. Murthy. Pyaasa is also known for its haunting musical score by S. D. Burman, with songs such as ‘Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai,’ ‘Jaane kya tune kahi’ and ‘Jaane wo kaise log the…’
The restoration of the film, to preserve it and present it in its original quality to a global audience, was undertaken by Ultra Media and Entertainment, who are the negative rights owners of the movie.
“It took us nearly four months to restore this film frame by frame and we are happy that the final outcome of the restored version can now be seen in its original form. Out of the many classics that we have restored, Pyaasa has a special place in our hearts,” Sushil Kumar Agrawal, CEO, Ultra Media & Entertainment has said.
Restoring films is painstaking, technology-intensive work. This project required sourcing the authentic materials to complete the preservation. Several hundred instances of dirt, lines, scratches, splices, warps, jitters and green patches were manually removed frame by frame under the supervision of experienced artists.
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According to Ultra Media and Entertainment, the original monaural sound track was re-mastered at 24-bit from the 35 mm optical soundtrack. Clicks, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed frame by frame at their sound studio. A major theatrical release of Pyaasa is also being planned after the screening in Venice.
Venice Classics is a section of the Venice Film Festival that presents a world premiere selection of restored classic films. The section brings back to light films of the past, restored over the past year by film archives, cultural institutions or production companies around the world. This year Pyaasa competes alongside such films as Akira Kurosawa’s Akahige (Red Beard), Amarcord by Federico Fellini and Le beau Serge (Bitter Reunion) by Claude Chabrol, amongst others.
