Madhumati

Here's a brooding and heated melodrama, that seems to me (as an non- Indian, English person) to have taken some great lines from myth and legend and put them all into a romantic drama that transcends time.

Having bought director Bimal Roy's 'Devdas' and played that, I found that I'd recorded Mudhumati from Film 4 years ago, but had never got round to playing it - what better time than now to do so?

I loved the multilayers of humour, the darker, sinister sides, the romance, the beauty and the love shown for the landscape and even the singing and dancing, which I have to admit, had always put me off 'Bollywood' films, before. Though long, over 3 hours with ad breaks, it was always compelling and ticked so many boxes that make for a really good film.

The on-screen quality, though, was a different matter, though, so bad were the white blemishes, it looked like it was sleeting on occasion! Sound was poor, too. One does get used to this, at least a bit, though and would probably lose some of its mysticism if it were a perfect digitally restored version, though I might actually buy such a disc, if one was released here and at a keen price.