![]() ![]() In short, many of my sources are garbage. “But they’re working with digitised reels of film, and not old VHS tapes, VCDs, DVDs, and videos downloaded from all over the place. “I don’t have access to the $20,000 software programmes that Hollywood film studio restorers use,” he says. He says he uses AviSynth, a video post-production tool, and Audacity for the audio. ![]() I slow films back to 24 FPS and put the audio back in tune,” he notes. The films speed up by about 4 per cent, and the audio usually becomes a semitone higher. “PAL (phase alternating line) parts of the world - including India and Europe - create their television shows and DVDs at 25 FPS, which usually involves something called PAL speed up. Meanwhile, movies shown in theatres are usually screened at 24 FPS. He further explains that because the film was taped from British television, it showed the movie at 25 frames per second (FPS). “It was from a VHS tape that a friend sent to me,” he says. Guru Dutt’s films integrated songs and dances better than most.”Īround nine years ago, Tom restored his first Indian film - Sohrab Modi’s historical production Pukar (1939). “I loved American musicals with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or the Busby Berkeley musicals and all Indian films were musicals. It was here that he discovered Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, which he rented off Netflix. I stumbled upon Philip Lutgendorf’s Indian review site.” “Then I decided to tackle India, knowing nothing about its films. ![]() He went through movies from across different countries, including Japan, Germany, France, and China. When Netflix arrived in the late 90s, Tom expanded the ambit of his film exploration, especially classic ones. They were marvellous escapism for all young boys and girls.” Source: Flickr My grandmother had a whole series of Oz books, and I read them all. “It was shown on US television once a year, and for several years, I didn’t miss it. Movies like the Wizard of Oz, he adds, influenced not only him, but all Americans of a certain age. I heard it just a couple of days ago, and I almost choked up,” he recalls. ![]() And the other, perhaps also known for a song - Que Sera Sera, sung by Doris Day - was the Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much. One was White Christmas with Bing Crosby, known even today for its title song. “Two films I remember to this day were the ones I watched with my parents. He says he didn’t go to movie theatres much while growing up. “But I live in Hawaii, and have for more than 50 years now,” he says. Born in Fort Benning, Georgia, he spent most of his school years in Arlington County, Virginia, where his father worked at the Pentagon. Tom’s father was in the Army, and as is common for such families, he moved around a lot. (Source: YouTube) The magical realm of cinema The first Hindi movie Tom ever watched was Sahib Bibi aur Ghulaam. It sounds plausible, and one is completely drawn into the story and gets lost in it like The Wizard Of Oz, I’ll never forget it.” The idea of a village bumpkin coming to the household of a wealthy zamindar, learning the lonely wife’s story, and telling it in the film is a brilliant concept. And I think Meena Kumari is a great actress. “Although Guru Dutt, like Satyajit Ray, is perhaps more accessible to westerners because they were both heavily influenced by American and other non-Indian films, SBAG is still very different from classic US films…Minoo Mumtaz’s dance is justly famous as one of the greatest Indian songs and dances ever. “For an American for whom this was his first classic Indian film, it was very exotic,” Tom tells The Better India over email. Thomas Daniel is a 74-year-old from Hawaii (Source: Thomas Daniel)Īround 15 years ago, Tom watched the milestone film Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulaam (1962) for the first time. But for an American with seemingly no connection to India barring two visits in the 70s, where does this love for reviving old Indian classics come from? So far, his channel has amassed over 80,000 subscribers, and he has restored around 200 films in Hindi, Urdu, and more recently, Bengali. On average, the septuagenarian, a resident of Hawaii, dedicates around 40 hours to restore one film. “The goal of this channel,” he writes under one video, “is to restore films as much as possible to their condition when projected in the movie theatres of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, or Lahore, 60, 70, 80 or more years ago.” These videos go through hours of rework and restoration, where the 73-year-old collates bits and pieces from all over - old VHS tapes, DVDs, downloaded videos, VCDs, and the like. It’s not just that Tom, a retired fisherman, finds classic old Indian movies and uploads them onto his channel, tommydan55. ![]()
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