Howrah Bridge - Ashok Kumar, Madhubala

Описание: Howrah Bridge, 1958
Director: Shakti Samanta
Music Director: O.P. Nayyar
Lyrics: Hasrat Jaipuri, Qamar
Playback: Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt, Mohammed Rafi, Shamshad Begum
Choreography: Surya Kumar
Cast: Ashok Kumar, Madhubala, K.N. Singh, Kammo, Madan Puri, Sunder, Helen, Om Prakash, Kammo, Mehmood, Minoo Mumtaz, Chaman Puri

English translation included. The subtitles have been heavily edited by Anu. Those of us not speaking the language are very grateful to her for doing this work for our benefit.

I have several versions of the film but, unfortunately, the one with the best video quality is also missing over 10% of the picture, and that's as compared to other versions that are also probably missing picture. An incompetent Indian media company has cut significant parts of the video on all four sides. You can see it in the credits with text on the sides being cut off, and in the movie with the tops of heads frequently being cut off. The visual compositions seem constantly to be cramped and claustrophobic. There is no excuse for this.

The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema says this about Howrah Bridge:

This crime movie was one of the first to assimilate the Hong Kong cinema’s influence, a trend continued by Samanta’s China Town (1962). Rakesh (Kumar), the son of a Rangoon merchant, comes to Calcutta in search of his brother’s killer. With the help of Joe, a restaurant manager, and Edna (Madhubala), a cabaret dancer, he routs the villains Pyarelal (K.N. Singh) and Chang (Puri). The film ends with a chase sequence over the famous Howrah Bridge in Calcutta and includes Geeta Dutt’s famous cabaret number Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo ... Hello mister, how do you do? performed in the film by Helen.

TOOLS USED FOR THE FILM:
AviSynth for the video editing
Audacity for the audio work.
Aegisub and Subtitle Edit for the subtitles

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
The Indian copyright law:
http://copyright.gov.in/Documents/Cop...

INDIAN COPYRIGHT ACT, 1957 CHAPTER I Preliminary (f)
"cinematograph film" means any work of visual recording on any medium produced through a process from which a moving image may be produced by any means and includes a sound recording accompanying such visual recording and cinematograph shall be construed as including any work produced by any process analogous to cinematography including video films.”

"CHAPTER V Term of Copyright 26.Term of copyright in cinematograph films.
In the case of a cinematograph film, copyright shall subsist until sixty years from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the film is published."

My words:
Indian film copyright (including video, dialog, music, lyrics, songs) lasts for sixty years and any film and its songs released more than sixty years ago is in the public domain. No extensions, no renewals, no exceptions. This film is no longer protected by copyright.