Garam Masala (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Animation Featurette-Making Of Theatrical Trailer Gallery-Stills Music Highlights-Song Selection Trailer-King Of Bollywood, Raincoat and Chokher Bali
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	140:32 (Case: 142)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (89:25)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Audio Format Select Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Priyadarshan
Studio Distributor	Madman Madman Entertainment	Starring	Akshay Kumar John Abraham Paresh Rawal Rimi Sen Nitu Chandra Nargis Bagheri Daisy Bopanna Rajpal Yadav Asrani Lakshmi Pandit Neha Dhupia Manoj Joshi
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Pritam Chakraborty

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Hindi Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.20:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, action during opening and closing credits

    Garam Masala is a Bollywood film, in Hindi, starring a couple of the current big names in the scene, Akshay Kumar and John Abraham. They play Mac and Sam respectively, both of whom are photographers for a photo magazine called Garam Masala. They are not just colleagues, but close friends who share an apartment together.

    When Sam wins the opportunity to go to the US for a photo competition by cheating and passing off someone else's photos as his own, Mac is furious and as far as he's concerned their friendship is over.

    Meanwhile, Mac, who's already engaged to Anjali (played by Rimi Sen), starts a relationship with another woman (or three), all of whom are air hostesses flying different routes. In fact he doesn't just have casual relationships with them, but has actually proposed to each one. Of course, none of the four women know about the others! Mac ropes in the help of a couple of guys to help keep track of his multiple fiancées' flight and other schedules to ensure that none of them ever meet...

    The tension that Mac and his cohorts face in 'balancing' his love affairs is quite palpable at times, to the point where it causes the viewer a fair few sympathetic stress headaches...especially as things start going wrong. The viewer can pretty much predict where things are going to end up as it's not a terribly subtle example of story telling. The story is pretty much a rehash of the 1965 Jerry Lewis/Tony Curtis film Boeing, Boeing.

    Of course, being a Bollywood production, the cast has to break into song at fairly regular intervals, often without any requirement from the plot.

Video

    This video transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.20:1, though its original theatrical ratio was 2.35:1. The transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture is reasonably sharp, though not the sharpest I've seen.

    Shadow detail is good, but that could be because the picture is typically Bollywood-bright almost all the time.

    There is no visible low-level noise.

    Colour is 'natural' and realistic. Skin tones are likewise.

    There is some aliasing visible, such as on the window blinds at 9:54 and at 20:18.

    There are no visible film artefacts.

    Subtitles, in English, are accurate and well timed. They use a yellow font which is clear at all times.

    The layer change point occurs at 89:25 and results in a 1 second pause.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio track on this DVD, that being in Hindi Dolby Digital 5.1.

    Dialogue is clear at all times, though there is occasionally a problem with audio sync which I feel might be due more to the ADR process than the transfer to DVD.

    The music, by Pritam Chakraborty (Dhoom, Gangster), suits the light nature of the film without being anything remarkable. There are a few song and dance numbers scattered throughout the film.

    The rear surround channels are occasionally used to support sound effects, especially during any of the airport scenes, in which there are some decently mixed sounds of aircraft flying over. However, the bulk of the sound action takes place across the front speakers.

    The subwoofer supports the music quite well.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu Audio

    The main menu featured excerpts from the title music.

Featurette - Making Of (runtime: 20:02)

    A collection of short interviews with the lead actors, the Director and some of the other cast members. This is in a mixture of Hindi and English, with English subtitles available where necessary.

    It's pretty much the usual talk-up of each other's performances, and what a 'great' film it is.

    Clips from the film are shown in their original 2.35:1 ratio (rather than the 2.20:1 transfer provided on this disc).

Theatrical Trailers

    The original cinema trailer for Garam Masala which runs for 2:55 and is presented in 2.35:1 ratio letterboxed.

    There is also a collection of TV Spots for this film.

Photo Gallery  (runtime 2:08)

    A collection of quite a few nice photos of the cast and crew on set and behind the scenes. Each photo self-advances after about 3 seconds. Music from the film plays in the background.

Music Highlights

    The user can select each of the 6 songs in the film, or use the 'play all' function.

Trailers

    3 trailers for other Hindi movies released by Madman Films in Australia. The trailers kick-off with the "You Wouldn't Steal a Car..." anti-piracy trailer.

       King of Bollywood (runtime 1:45)

       Raincoat  (1:09)

       Chokher Bali (1:11)

    The R4 version is pretty good, apart from presenting the video in 2.20:1 ratio rather than its original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1.

    Due to the prevalence of pirated versions of Bollywood films in the open market, it's difficult to tell whether the R1 version, if indeed there is one, is any better or worse than the R4.

    A pretty ordinary effort at a comedy in which the Director, Priyadarshan (Hera Pheri, Hungama), has tried to incorporate too many elements of 'basic' comedy into a film that's already jam-packed with comedy and tension. The actors look uninterested (even the usually reliable Akshay Kumar), the music is a bit lame, and there are far too many plot holes to be acceptable.

    Whilst the plot, as thin as it is, is easily understood, it's the execution of the film that is quite poor, almost embarrassingly so at times.

    Garam Masala is a very mainstream Bollywood production that would bring joy to the undiscerning mass market in India, although I find it hard to believe that it would appeal to many viewers in Australia. I feel bad for Madman Films selecting this one to release here. They have released a few far better Hindi movies, and there are plenty more recent films with unusual storylines that would make far better viewing for viewers down under.

    The picture quality is fine (apart from using the incorrect ratio), the audio is quite good and the extras are reasonable considering that this is a single disc release.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall