Review of Sharmilee

Introduction

With a decent plot you would expect a good screenplay, however what we are presented within this film is mayhem as it remains unfulfilling. Surprisingly for a film made at its time it does become daring at times, with openness to relationships and sexuality (even if it is left to the viewers mind). This part of the film does show the trend of Indian films becoming more open to the western world during the seventies.

But the values of Indian womanhood kick in and maybe that`s where the fault of the film lies. Here dialogues and situations do become predictable and thus lacking to the expectation the film explores during the first half. Also demising western values with bias accounts doesn`t really help with audiences who know better.

Performances wise Rakhee wins hand down as both the shy and open-minded girl. Her acting as Kamini is impressive and shows her versatility in her skills as an artiste. Its hard to see her, who would soon be playing older roles, look as stunning as she does in this film. Also Shashi Kapoor is watchable but the screenplay does let him down slightly as he ends up playing the `he-man` of the film who `saves the day`.

With a decent cast and great songs by S.D. Burman the film is worth watching just once if it happens to be on. But not one I would recommend from the 1970`s as much better films were made during this period.

Video

The DVD receives the usual restoration process DEI does on older titles, with impressive results. The film for the first time looks fresh and has excellent sharpness detail that brings this thirty year old movie to the digital age. Once again DEi have used the interpositive 35mm negative print, which means less blemish and wear and tear seen on pervious home format releases.

The DVD has small wear and tear signs in the form of white dots, which are expected on this older title. However not once do they become disruptive. The DVD has kept the intentions of the director as it has been framed according to the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, a full screen picture.

Some DVNR process is used on this DVD to hide the majority of blemishes which it achieves in hiding without much filtering problems. Although if you have a really big projection system over 150 inches wide then filtering will become more evident. Still the picture will look great on a normal and projection television set less then 65 inches wide. No major compression artefacts are seen while grain problems, shimmering and moiré effects were viewable only in a fraction of scenes. This makes them unnoticeable.

Colour definition and saturation was at times really vivid and showed minimal interference and beautiful eastman colour. But due to the 35mm negative age some moments of red and brown hues are detected in a couple of noted scenes. As this is expected I wasn`t really put off viewing when the problem appeared. But some extra work on colour correction could have make this better.

Still a great presentation of colour is evident on this disc. Contrast levels and black details gave richness and depth, but the end climax had weaker moments as it was shot poorly by the filmmakers who were doing a poor visual effect.

Audio

The soundtrack has been kept to its original mono source. As a result of the original sound negative, which is decaying with age, some hissing and cracklings were detected. There are moments of sound drop out during chapter 7, and there are moments of major sound disturbances in chapter 20. The problems are not too distracting to the ears and dialogues remain clear and audible.

Features

Once again DEI have disappointed me with the poor box design which seems to have no quality feel to it. The menus were nice and thematic as by their usual standards on DEI discs.

The English subtitle track was very well laid out font wise and grammar wise. But for widescreen televisions they are unfriendly. If the subtitles are placed a little higher then the film could be zoomed on 16x9 televisions sets for comfortable viewing.

Conclusion

Another job well done by DEI on a older title, even if some problems are present due to age and negative damage. Recommended.