"Aparajito" Artificial Eye Region 2 PAL vs Columbia Tri-Star Region 1

(aka 'Aparajito' or 'The Unvanquished')

directed by Satyajit Ray
India 1957

"Aparajito" is the second film of Satyajit Ray's 'Apu Trilogy' (Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar) continues to document the life and maturation of one young Indian boy. The film opens with Apu, son of Harihar and Sarbajaya, wandering and exploring the Temple City of Bananas on the banks of the Ganga (Ganges river) where they reside. The story focuses on Apu leaving the embrace of his family nest to work and become educated in a more modern world than what he has become accustomed in his youth. The struggle to remain separate is exemplified by the dire need of his Mother, Sarbajaya who is deathly ill and depressed She remains desperately lonely in her small village after the death of her husband and departure of her son. Continuing the cycle of life Satyajit Ray continues to explore the inner conflicts of conforming to a more contemporary world than our parents. The strength to overcome our bonding of birth is another universal theme of traditional respect and independent personal advancement. out of

Gary W. Tooze

Theatrical Release: 1957 - India

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DVD Comparison:

Artificial Eye - Region 2 - PAL vs. Columbia Tri-Star - Region 1 - NTSC

All Screen caps courtesy of Kevin Yip

(Artificial Eye - Region 2 - PAL - LEFT vs. Columbia Tri-Star - Region 1 - NTSC - RIGHT)

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Distribution	Artificial Eye Entertainment Region 2 - PAL	Columbia Tri-Star Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:44:32 (4% PAL speedup)	1:50:24
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.14 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4.95 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
Bitrate: AE NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Columbia
Audio	Bengali (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)	Bengali (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles	English, and none	English (non-removable)
Features	Release Information: Studio: Artificial Eye Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Special features: * 9-minute excerpt of BBC documentary "Omnibus: The Cinema Satyajit Ray", in English without subtitles or closed captioning * A few stills from the film * Production, biographical, and bibliographical notes DVD Release Date: February 10th, 2003 Keep Case Chapters 15 NOTE: 3-film set (Apu Trilogy), each film not sold separately	Release Information: Studio: Columbia Tri-star Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Special features: * None DVD Release Date: October 28, 2003 Keep Case Chapters: 12
Comments:	The Columbia Region-1 DVD versions of THE APU TRILOGY (PATHER PANCHALI, APARAJITO, THE WORLD OF APU) were based the 1994 restoration effort by Merchant-Ivory Production. The picture quality of all three discs looks to be of laserdisc quality, with the APARAJITO and THE WORLD OF APU discs looking a little cleaner and sharper. The PATHER PANCHALI and THE WORLD OF APU discs also exhibit "ghosting" effects, apparently due to the use of non-progressive video sources (frame-advance on the DVD player indicates 30 frames a second). The APARAJITO disc, however, shows no ghosting (24 frames a second during frame-advance). The Region-2 PAL DVD of THE APU TRILOGY from UK's Artificial Eye was apparently the result of a hi-def transfer and digital cleanup, and it looks sharper and has much fewer speckles, scratches, and other blemishes that are seen on the R1 discs. The mono sound of the R2 disc is sharper and has better dynamic range, but more hisses and static, than the R1 disc. The R1 disc of APARAJITO runs 110 minutes total, including 90 seconds of credits for the Merchant-Ivory restoration; thus the film itself runs 108 minutes. The R2 disc is time-coded to be 104 minutes long, even though the packaging states 108 minutes. Kevin Yip

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(Artificial Eye - Region 2 - PAL - LEFT vs. Columbia Tri-Star - Region 1 - NTSC - RIGHT)