While most film-goers will be heading to a cinema hall on Friday to catch Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone doing some matargashti in Tamasha, the producers of Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai, are sure that a good number will also walk in to catch the digitally enhanced version of the super hit 1969 Punjabi film.
Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai starring Prithviraj Kapoor and IS Johar in key roles was the first big hit in Punjabi in post-independent India, the film also went on to grab two National Awards in 1970. The rights of the film were bought from its original producers by Wave Cinemas Ponty Chadha and Shemaroo Entertainment, who also then took the initiative to enhance the film digitally and re-release it on Guru Nanak Jayanti.
A devotional film strung around an emotional family drama between two brothers, the quality and clarity of the digitally enhanced print of Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai is evident from the film’s new trailer.
Hemant Karani, Vice President, Head of Studio, Shemaroo Entertainment, headed the team that revived the damaged negative print of Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai into a digital one. “Since the negative’s condition was not good, it was scanned at a high 4k resolution and then restored at 2k resolution. A team of 100 technicians were involved in colour grading the film, matching colour levels and digitally enhancing the damaged print frame by frame for over a month,” he says.
The new and improved Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai will be released both in India and overseas for a new generation of Punjabis, as the producers anticipate a huge interest for the film among expats, especially in countries like Canada and North America. The film reportedly had a huge cultural impact when it was originally released in 1969, and for the first time people queued up for almost a kilometre to buy tickets for a Punjabi film.
In fact, the stupendous success of Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai, prompted several Hindi film actors like Dharmendra, Rajendra Kumar and Dara Singh to turn their attention to Punjabi films in the 1970s.
Dharmendra sure still remembers how influential the film was even 46 years later. The actor made sure he was present a Gurudwara in Mumbai recently to the release the film’s new poster.
Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai coincidentally pits the late Prithviraj Kapoor against his great grandson Ranbir Kapoor (Tamasha) at the box-office on November 26th. Well, the senior Kapoor has already won the battle, he’s just returning for seconds.
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