A restored 'Hum Dono' readies for release

Fifty years after it hit cinema halls, Dev Anand’s black and white classic Hum Dono is scheduled for a comeback in theatres worldwide early next year.

“This time it will be in colour, cinemascope and dolby digital,” says the veteran actor who has spent “a few crores to restore and colourise” the film.

Hum Dono is scheduled for a global release on January 28 while Indian audiences will be able to see the new version in February.

“The quality is superior to the other colourised and restored Hindi films that we have seen in the past. The colour has soft and realistic tones matching the nuance, mood and texture of the film,” he adds.

Anand reveals that both the film’s audio and the video were restored. The 35mm frame was cropped for conversion into the cinemascope format and the songs were converted into stereophonic sound. Also, a few notes were added to the background score.

“Only the film’s format needed modernisation, not the story or the songs which still have a fresh appeal,” Anand says.

The colourised version was shown to a select audience in September at Siri Fort, New Delhi.

“I was overwhelmed with the response and I am optimistic that the film will also be received very well internationally,” he said.

Meanwhile, industry insiders point out that colourisation of a black-and-white film is an expensive and time-consuming process. “It takes nearly a year and costs anywhere between Rs2 crore to Rs3 crore per film,” informs filmmaker Ravi Chopra who has colourised and restored his father BR Chopra’s classic Naya Daur.

“As the film is black-and-white, you don’t know what the original colour is. There is a software which tells you approximately what the colour could be. We have to select the right colour and that takes time,” Chopra adds.

The question remains whether the effort and money pumped into the process is a worthwhile investment. Trade pundits point out that there is no guarantee of box office returns as earlier colourised and restored films, such as Mughal-e-Azam or Naya Daur, failed to capture audience attention.

However, both Anand and Chopra insist that it is not always about the money but the emotional connect of the film.