Sri MGR Year 96, 9th December, Monday
One of our blog readers Muralidharan Murugan had informed me about the digital restoration of MGR Fans cult movie Ayirathil Oruvan by Divya Films Chockalingam who had already done such reworking with the song portions of Ulagam Sutrum Valiban way back in 1990s.
Earlier Emgeeyar Pictures three gems Nadodi Mannan, Adimai Penn and Ulagam Sutrum Valiban were released in Qube and Dts format. And this movie Ayirathil Oruvan deserved an uplift and the same is been done by Divya Films Chockalingam.
The article written by Karthik Subramanian for MGR movie conversion to DI, restoration and re-recording the back ground music is been published by The Hindu recently. Below is the article.
49 years after its release, MGR-Jayalalithaa starrer to return with re-recorded background score
Soon, one will get to hear the evergreen anthem of MGR — “Atho antha paravai pola vaazha vendum” — in digital surround sound at multiplexes across the state.
Nearly five decades after the release of the movie, featuring former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and iconic actor M.G. Ramachandran and current Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in lead roles, ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ directed by B.R.Panthulu is getting ready for a digitally enhanced theatrical re-release in January.
Divya Films, which released the Sivaji Ganesan epic ‘Karnan’ in digital format in 2012 to a good response, is working on the finishing touches to the digital version of ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ at the Prasad EFX studio in the city.
The digitally restored film will also feature a completely re-recorded background music (BGM) played out by an assistant of veteran film director M.S.Viswananthan. It has been recorded in digital surround sound. The technicians at Prasad EFX who had previously done the restoration for ‘Karnan’ and ‘Paasa Malar’ are working on technical aspects of the restoration, including preparing the ‘digital intermediates’ (DI) and scope conversion for converting the 35 mm film to digital scope.
G.Chockalingam of Divya Films says he has been working on restoring ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ ever since he completed the release of digital ‘Karnan’. “The film negatives were in a more damaged stage than those of ‘Karnan’. So, we had to painstakingly apply the digital restoration and corrections to every frame of the 18 reels. With ‘Karnan,’ just three reels needed extra care. But here, the entire length of 2 hours and 45 minutes has been digitally enhanced and that is why it has taken this long to be restored,” he said.
Mr. Chockalingam plans to unveil the marketing strategy for the re-release on December 24, coinciding with M.G.Ramachandran’s death anniversary. The film has been slated for a January release.
Click the above image to enlarge
According to the image given in The Hindu, we can see vast difference between both the versions. Lets hope the full movie output will be the same as they promised. Imagine how great it will be to hear the crystal clear voice of our Puratchi Thalaivar in the reworked format.
