Saawariya (Blu-ray) Official AVSForum Review [Text View]

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Ralph Potts

05-12-08, 10:19 AM

<img src="http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=110175&d=1210600133"hspace="12"align="left">
The Review at a Glance: (max score: 5 )

Film: <img src=" http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=109945&d=1210373692">

Extras: <img src="http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=109943&d=1210373647">

 Audio/Video total rating:
 ( Max score: 100 )
<h2>95</h2>
 
Studio and Year: > Sony Pictures/SLB Films - 2007
MPAA Rating: PG
Feature running time: 138 Minutes
Genre: Drama/Musical

Disc Format: BD-50
Encoding: MPEG-4 (AVC)
Video Aspect: 2.40:1
Resolution: 1080p/24
 
Audio Format(s): Hindi Dolby TrueHD 5.1, English Descriptive 5.1
Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Mandarin Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK), English (US), Finnish, French (Parisian), German, Greek, Hindi, Icelandic, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugual), Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin Am), Swedish, Thai, Turkish
Starring: Ranbir Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Salman Khan
Directed by: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Music by: Monty
Written by: Prakash Kapadia & Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Blu-ray Disc release Date: May 6, 2008

<img src="http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=109949&d=1210373731" align=left>
 
 Ralph Potts
AVS Forum Blu-ray Reviews

 Reference Review System:


Sony VPL-VW50 SXRD 1080p High Definition Front Projector
Carada Precision Brilliant White 96" Screen
Oppo 970HD universal disc DVD Player (480i HDMI)
Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD Player (HDMI Audio/Video)
Panasonic DMP-BD30 Blu-ray disc Player (HDMI Audio/Video)
Sony Playstation 3 Blu-ray disc Player (HDMI Audio/Video)
Marantz DV7001 Universal Disc Player
Denon AVR 5308CI THX Ultra 2 Preamp/Video Processor
Outlaw Audio Model 7700 seven channel amplifier
B&K Reference 200.7 Series 2 seven Channel amplifier
Canton "Ergo" Series speakers
Axiom Audio QS8 Quadpolar speakers
SV Sound PB-13 Ultra (Rosenut finish)
APC AV S15BLK Power Conditioner/Surge Protector
Wireworld, VizionWare, Audioquest, Best Deal Cables - Audio/Video/Speaker Cabling
Cool Components - CP-CP102 cooling package

stickshift

05-12-08, 11:37 AM

Do we know if the movie was filmed in HD ? Both newcomers (main casts) in that movie are siblings of top rated actors - Rishi Kapoor and Anil Kapoor.

Ralph Potts

05-12-08, 12:19 PM

Greetings,

I couldn't say for sure but my opinion is that is was. I edited your post removing the quote of the entire review. Hope you don't mind..

Cheers,

topperdude

05-12-08, 03:45 PM

Do we know if the movie was filmed in HD ? Both newcomers (main casts) in that movie are siblings of top rated actors - Rishi Kapoor and Anil Kapoor.

I believe Rishi Kapoor and Anil Kapoor are the newcomers fathers.

BTW, thanks for the review Ralph!

sojodave

05-12-08, 07:53 PM

My wife loves Bollywood movies and I got this for her for Mothers Day. The Picture Quality is reference, but the audio track will blow you away. I turned my stereo down 10 db from reference level and it still had some of the best bass I've heard. It definitely isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if you like musicals, subtitles, and sappy love stories, definitely worth viewing.

HoustonPerson

05-12-08, 10:35 PM

Thank You Ralph Potts...............This entire section is fantastic. Great detail and information on all the movies.

krholmberg

05-13-08, 01:24 PM

Ralph...

After reading your review I went ahead and bought it :D. My wife is Indian so I couldn't refuse the opportunity to get the first Bollywood movie released on BD. Though entertaining, most Bollywood movies I've seen so far on SD DVD have sub par audio and video quality (especially when displayed on a 110" screen). This should be a positive move forward... hopefully this is only the first of many to be released on BD. Thanks! BTW, compared to pretty much every Bollywood movie I've seen, 138 minutes is very short... most are at least 180 minutes.

rsharma314

05-13-08, 06:17 PM

... so I couldn't refuse the opportunity to get the first Bollywood movie released on BD ...

Heyy Babyy, by Sajid Nadiadwala, was the first Bollywood Blu Ray movie that was released - Saawariya wasn't.

dvdstore.erosentertainment.com/product/bluraydvd.asp

Ralph, great work on the reviews BTW.

paul?

05-13-08, 06:43 PM

Thanks Ralph!

After reading your review, I am interested in this movie. Without the review I would probably never even notice that it was out there.

krholmberg

05-13-08, 06:50 PM

Heyy Babyy, by Sajid Nadiadwala, was the first Bollywood Blu Ray movie that was released - Saawariya wasn't.

dvdstore.erosentertainment.com/product/bluraydvd.asp

Ralph, great work on the reviews BTW.

Oops :o. How was the transfer? Was it a good movie?

esimms86

05-13-08, 07:19 PM

"Its release on Sony blu-ray will delight fans with its superfluous audio and video quality."

Ralph,
Excellent review. I do, however, believe that you meant to say that the audio and video quality was "superb." For us audio/videophiles, there is nothing superfluous about it. Keep the reviews coming.
- Esau

rsharma314

05-13-08, 10:26 PM

Oops :o. How was the transfer? Was it a good movie?

From a novice standpoint, the audio and video of Saawariya was encoded much better. I believe the BD disc on Heyy Babyy was a single layer, however, it was a double layer on Saawariya - that itself explains how/why Saawariya had a better picture and sound.

Heyy Babyy was a Bollywood spinoff of a french movie, Trois hommes et un couffin (Three Men and a Cradle), later to be Three Men and a Baby staring Tom Selleck. Most of Heyy Babyy was based in Australia, and had some Bollywood humour embeded in it. I would give it a 7 out of 10 ranking.

Ralph Potts

05-14-08, 04:40 AM

jackeroo75

05-14-08, 11:51 AM

Is the audio in English?

ecommando

05-14-08, 07:24 PM

Audio is not in English.
I just saw the film last night on my 1080p projector. Video and audio quality were really good.

Is the audio in English?

dougotte

05-15-08, 11:00 AM

Ralph Potts

05-15-08, 11:12 AM

I think "superlative" would work, too.

Doug

Greetings,

Absolutely Doug...:)

Cheers,

rsharma314

05-17-08, 09:56 AM

Audio is not in English ... snip

Incorrect. You do have the option to have the audio in english, however, it says it's English Descriptive.
You only hear two voices speaking in english, who narate the lyrics with no emotions - sort of in a rythmic monotonous tone. They, however, do give detail description of what actions the characters are performing. I'm thinking thats how the script for the movie was written.

krholmberg

05-18-08, 03:13 AM

Well... I got it in the mail today so we watched it tonight. Very different than the typical Bollywood film. The audio was fantastic and the video was very good. Rani looked good as always :). The thought of her as a prostitute makes the imagination wander...

Ralph: I think your take on the audio and video was spot on and I'm very glad I bought the Blu-Ray disk. I also noticed the black crush (as well as some grain in some of the darker scenes), but it took very little from the movie. One suggestion... you may want to add Sonam Kapoor to your list of actors since this film was the debut of both Sonam and Ranbir Kapoor.

GAX279

06-07-08, 06:30 PM

Ralph Potts

06-07-08, 06:54 PM

av.pallino

06-07-08, 09:19 PM

I found it hard to sit through 20 continuous minutes of this movie! It looked like every 5 minutes there was this weird sond and dance routine and the acting was wayyyy toooo melodramatic for me.

I got this as an item to add to my Bollywood genre, but I can't think of anyone who will enjoy it :)

I wasn't too impresed with the PQ either. The backgrounds always seemed a little out of focus.

GAX279

06-09-08, 04:39 PM

Greetings,

GAX279. The answer can be found here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13975740#post13975740

To read the full review where I originally posted it you can do so here:

Saawariya Review as originally posted by Ralph Potts (http://www.***************.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/141093/)

Please feel free to make any comments etc. in this thread.

Thanks.
Ralph-
Thank you-I read the review and watched the movie last night-I personally thought the PQ and AQ were great, but the movie was so-so. However, I would not have known about this movie nor had a desire to watch it without reading your review, so thank you for the opportunity!

Now it's on to Master and Commander....-I have high expectations for that movie (AQ!).

As mentioned before, thank you and please keep the reviews coming!

Don

mrtwstr

06-15-08, 08:08 AM

I have to say, I love Bollywood films generally (Monsoon Wedding, Bride and Prejudice for example) and as much as I thought the colors were spectacular I was really disappointed in the movie itself. The story was all over the map. Pity.

fronn

06-25-08, 12:26 PM

I just watched this one last night and found myself really impressed -- my lady actually mentioned how good it looked as well (which is very atypical).

This is a reference disc in my book. The sound was fantastic and video was all sorts of awesome. If I find it for less than $20 at some point, this disc is mine ($27 is a bit much for a movie I only liked rather than loved).

The video being beautiful has a lot to do with the cinematography and set design though (it's more related to the colors and specific scenes - like when it started snowing - than clarity or resolution).

The movie itself I'd give a 3.5/5. I like how it ended though, but it isn't necessarily my style of movie -- there was a few cute parts ("i likes you", "i don't likes" made me chuckle for some reason), but overall the characters were a bit overdramatic for my tastes (I think that's typical bollywood, so I let it pass). I liked the idea of the story and a few things about it, but it missed something to make it a really good movie (regardless of taste).

Review seems rather spot on, Ralph.

Ralph Potts

06-25-08, 12:33 PM

Greetings,

Thanks for sharing fronn, and I am glad that you liked Saawariya.:)

Regards,

kstirman

07-06-08, 10:08 AM

The video quality of this film is excellent. It is 100% filmed on a sound stage, so nature and natural light have little or no role in the story. Most shots are close up, so it looks more like a tv show than a film. Colors are super saturated, almost dripping off the screen.

The audio is high quality, but so artificial that it isn't very enjoyable.

The quality of the story is poor. Most will be hard pressed to get through the whole movie in one sitting. Personally, I found it painful to watch, in spite of the beautiful actors.

I guess after trying a half dozen or so Bollywood films, I don't really care for them (older Indian films are a different story). The one exception for me is Lagaan, which I highly recommend. Its just short of 4 hours, and I'll confess to still not really understanding cricket after 10 or so viewings since it came out in 2002, but it has great actors, great music, and a terrific though predictable story.

I don't usually post reviews here, but for anyone considering purchasing this blu ray, you might rent it first. I wish I hadn't bought mine.

Kelly

Daman S

07-28-08, 04:30 PM

I guess after trying a half dozen or so Bollywood films, I don't really care for them (older Indian films are a different story). The one exception for me is Lagaan, which I highly recommend. Its just short of 4 hours, and I'll confess to still not really understanding cricket after 10 or so viewings since it came out in 2002, but it has great actors, great music, and a terrific though predictable story.
Kelly
I do understand your point, but there are some good newer movies made(albeit in very small number). When you get a chance check out Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, Lakshya, Munna Bhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munna bhai, Om Shanti Om(which is incidentally on BD) etc.

Also from older movies, you may not have heard of it- but check out Pushpak if you can- its a silent movie(no dialogue - made mid 80's) and is a fantastic satire-comedy.

gonzalc3

07-31-08, 08:52 AM

Hi Ralph,

I just rented this one and is pure eye candy.. It is one of the best presentations that I have seen in the format. In terms of sound is definetely reference material...
I am now thinking whether to actually buy this one...
The film itself is enterteining... but I don't think that is for everyone...

Ralph Potts

07-31-08, 09:24 AM

Greetings,

Glad you enjoyed it Chris....:cool:

Cheers,