The real fun of being a film buff!

The first film review of Farhan Akhtarrsquos Dil Chahta Hai DCH 2001 came from Mani Ratnam its cinematographer Ravi K Chandran told me onceRavi was at Chennairsquos Prasad Labs colourgrading DCH Thatrsquos how Ratnam saw the film called and told Akhtar not to change a frameWhatrsquos colourgrading exactly I thought when I heard this Itrsquos the enhancement of colours starting with primaries red green blue so the frames look more like film than life itself The latter is what audiences wish to escape from anywayAlso itrsquos the final process executed by the colourist approved by the cinematographer before the film reaches your eyes The ears part gets taken care of with the lsquoaudio mixrsquo merging background and foreground sounds of a filmWhich for Aditya Choprarsquos Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge 1995 was done at Prasad Labs its general manager Jayalakshmi Vasant tells me when Irsquom in front of Indiarsquos first 70 mm screen where it happened mdash as she takes me around a nineacre campus in the lungs of Chennairsquos film industry aka Kollywood from Kodambakkam neighbourhoodFrankly Irsquom doing the opposite of what a film buff should mdashgoing from a classified door into another navigating a mazeWhile itrsquos amaze it takes the magic off the movies as you experience beforeafter images with hundreds of workhorses rotating three shifts a day on computer screens restoring old films upgrading latest films introducing visual effects fire temple crowds touching up moviestarsrsquo faces ldquomainly hairlines eyebags wrinkles on foreheadshelliprdquoThe place feels like a secretservice HQ Certain spaces are offlimits Especially for international projects there are nondisclosure clauses I take care not to click pixAbhishek Prasad chief tech officer of Prasad Labs tells me ldquoSince as an audience we love the same moviestars and wish to see them at their prime forever mdash VFX budgets for a regular film including titling etc could go up to 10 to 15 per cent of the budgetrdquoBy average he means obviously not the DCMarvel universesAbhishekrsquos greatgrandfather Dadasaheb Phalke awardee LV Prasad 19071994 who set up the lab back in 1956 is history himself In 1930 he ran away to Bombay from his Andhra village to become an actor mdash landing minor parts in several films including Indiarsquos first talkie Alam Ara also first Tamil Telugu talkies Kalidas Baktha Prahlada Among odd jobs in Bombay besides working with Prithviraj Kapoorrsquos theatre troupe LV was the doorkeeper at Grant Roadrsquos Dreamland cinemaThat 70 mm screen Irsquom gobsmacked by also Indiarsquos only highdefinition resolution screen for colourgrading Jayalakshmi says was built by LV from earnings of his superhit film Ek Duuje Ke Liye 1981Not too far away is the shooting floor where Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan canned the promo of their forthcoming film together couple of days agoJayalakshmi points to a wall on the campus where Kamal shot Apoorva SagodharargalAppu Raja 1989 playing a dwarf It made sense to shoot it there They could instantly process the footage to check if the camera tricks worked and carry onOver time Prasad Labs became the capital of film postproduction for the global south with films from Egypt Malaysia Sri Lanka et al getting processed As it continues toI see scanning equipment getting shipped to Saudi Arabia since theyrsquove newly found love for films restoration includedIrsquom sure yoursquove noticed Prasad Labs in closing credits of movies that nobody waits for You appreciate those names in that neverending scroll only when you watch them in action VFX supervisors usually donrsquot make it to opening credits They literally make the film I observe Felix struggling on his computer to switch a shot from mono to stereo which is the term to go from 2D to 3DItrsquos a simple job of separating foreground woman midground land and background forest in an image Itrsquos taken him 21 days for 29 frames that is barely a blinkandmiss onscreen 24 frames equal a second in film ldquoWe call this a monster shotrdquo Felix says for scenes that require serious grunt work I wonder if AI could dramatically decrease this workload ldquoIt depends on the deliverables Also the accuracy asked for which changes between media phones OTT big screenrdquo Abhishek saysFor instance he adds ldquoYou could be cleaning up an old film and the AI might erase rain from a scene deeming it as dustrdquo Humans still make all the art Machines merely executeGiven how constant techupgradations render old digital formats incompatible mdash the best way to preserve film still is in its traditional analogue negative form that disintegrates into foul smell of vinegar if not frozen at 4degCThat OG negative is our best bet to restore old movies mdash adding to it other available prints for scenes that may have got damaged in the original I see Hollywood classics likewise getting cleaned restored colourised shot by shotThis is before cinemaencyclopedia Jayalakshmi walks me to a hall with 60 supervisors restoring an old film a week from the library of the National Film Archives of IndiaShe says ldquoUntil he had to vacate mdash for decades this was Ilaiyaraajarsquos recording room with a screen 100 violinists SP Balasubrahmanyam singing in that cornerhelliprdquo JawdropMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper