This is a Bengali film loosely based upon Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (version 7 by my count) and Hemendra Kumar Roy's novel "Nishithini Bivishika".
I found out some time ago that this film had been issued on DVD, on "Angel Digital Premium". I then found it at an Amazon Marketplace store in INDIA. I contacted the seller, who confirmed, it was "region-free" and had English subtitles. But he DID NOT ship to the USA. Oh well! Have not seen another copy since.
I then found it, in 2 files, posted on Youtube by Karigori Kobiyal. It's still there! But I wanted to be able to watch it on my (small) widescreen TV. My best friend (down in Georgia) was able to record it for me and run off a DVD. I watched it last night. The picture & sound quality varies throughout the entire film, but it's watchable. The real quirk is, my friend's got some VERY strange kind of recorder. Discs he runs off will not play on my regular Blu-Ray Player, but will on my Region-Free DVD Player. But, with that, I have to set the TV to "stretch" instead of either "normal" or "zoom".
Well, my new Region-Free Blu-Ray Player over-rides regular disc formats, and everything plays on "stretch". However... with my friend's disc, the picture is SQUEEZED horizontally, so the image looks taller than it is wide. Which is not what it looks like ON YOUTUBE. Weird. If I play more of his discs, I'm gonna have to dig out the DVD player again and use that!!
Okay, this story takes place in India, they've changed the names of all the characters, but, this is actually much-closer to Doyle's novel than the later 1962 Indian film, BEEL SAAL BAAD. In that one, the "Watson" character is a freelance private eye who is so goofy and goofy-looking, he reminded me of Avery Shreiber. And the "Holmes" character is actually an undercover police inspector whose identity you don't learn until the last act. In this one, you have the "normal" set up of the "Dr. Mortimer" character going to "Holmes" & "Watson" for help, except, they're both official police detectives. And, the shorter, rounder guy is "Holmes", the tall skinny guy is "Watson". Oh well!
Oh, and there's no dog in either version. But there is a woman pretending to be a ghost who keeps warning the "Henry" character to GET OUT, as his life is in danger.
Like several other versions, the climax takes place partly in a series of underground tunnels. I really need to find out if that's in the novel or not! It was also used in Belgian writer Steeman's "Six Hommes Morts", which itself was adapted to film 4 times. That story shares with "Hound" in having one man killing several others for financial gain.
The oddest part of the film, for me, is that certain random lines of dialogue are IN ENGLISH. How does that happen? Do some people in India speak in 2 languages at the same time?
I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy this a HELL of a lot more if I had a much-clearer print (on both picture & sound). Someone needs to do a restoration of this and issue it on a BLU-RAY, so that people in every country can watch it at the CORRECT speed.
The 1962 version, which was done as a romantic-musical-comedy-murder mystery, is a lot more fun than this one. But, I'm really glad I got this!
I found out some time ago that this film had been issued on DVD, on "Angel Digital Premium". I then found it at an Amazon Marketplace store in INDIA. I contacted the seller, who confirmed, it was "region-free" and had English subtitles. But he DID NOT ship to the USA. Oh well! Have not seen another copy since.
I then found it, in 2 files, posted on Youtube by Karigori Kobiyal. It's still there! But I wanted to be able to watch it on my (small) widescreen TV. My best friend (down in Georgia) was able to record it for me and run off a DVD. I watched it last night. The picture & sound quality varies throughout the entire film, but it's watchable. The real quirk is, my friend's got some VERY strange kind of recorder. Discs he runs off will not play on my regular Blu-Ray Player, but will on my Region-Free DVD Player. But, with that, I have to set the TV to "stretch" instead of either "normal" or "zoom".
Well, my new Region-Free Blu-Ray Player over-rides regular disc formats, and everything plays on "stretch". However... with my friend's disc, the picture is SQUEEZED horizontally, so the image looks taller than it is wide. Which is not what it looks like ON YOUTUBE. Weird. If I play more of his discs, I'm gonna have to dig out the DVD player again and use that!!
Okay, this story takes place in India, they've changed the names of all the characters, but, this is actually much-closer to Doyle's novel than the later 1962 Indian film, BEEL SAAL BAAD. In that one, the "Watson" character is a freelance private eye who is so goofy and goofy-looking, he reminded me of Avery Shreiber. And the "Holmes" character is actually an undercover police inspector whose identity you don't learn until the last act. In this one, you have the "normal" set up of the "Dr. Mortimer" character going to "Holmes" & "Watson" for help, except, they're both official police detectives. And, the shorter, rounder guy is "Holmes", the tall skinny guy is "Watson". Oh well!
Oh, and there's no dog in either version. But there is a woman pretending to be a ghost who keeps warning the "Henry" character to GET OUT, as his life is in danger.
Like several other versions, the climax takes place partly in a series of underground tunnels. I really need to find out if that's in the novel or not! It was also used in Belgian writer Steeman's "Six Hommes Morts", which itself was adapted to film 4 times. That story shares with "Hound" in having one man killing several others for financial gain.
The oddest part of the film, for me, is that certain random lines of dialogue are IN ENGLISH. How does that happen? Do some people in India speak in 2 languages at the same time?
I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy this a HELL of a lot more if I had a much-clearer print (on both picture & sound). Someone needs to do a restoration of this and issue it on a BLU-RAY, so that people in every country can watch it at the CORRECT speed.
The 1962 version, which was done as a romantic-musical-comedy-murder mystery, is a lot more fun than this one. But, I'm really glad I got this!
