CHENNAI: Almost fifty-six years after Sivaji Ganesan delivered his famous dialogue Vari Vatti Thirai, Kisthi.... opposing the British bureaucrat Jackson in the film Veerapandiya Kattabomman — a film which brought out the patriotic fervour in fans and film-lovers — it will soon rekindle nostalgia among the film’s aficionados and perhaps extend its charm to a younger audience in a digitally-restored version.
Launching the trailer on Friday, the actor’s family and Sai Ganesh films which has almost completed digitizing the movie are excited to re-release the award-winning movie, with the dialogues, scenes and song sequences, digitally-restored and with better sound quality.
Following a proposal from Raj TV network, Sai Ganesh Films went about carefully restoring director B R Panthulu’s original released in 1959. “We spent around nine months cleaning the prints to completely restore the film and present it in a digital 5.1 surround restoration mode. Earlier, it was just on a 35 mm film with mono sound. Hopefully, we can release the movie in a month,” said Murali B V, coordinator, Sai Ganesh Films.
Speaking to City Express after the trailer’s release, Prabhu, one of Sivaji Ganesan’s sons was happy with the reception the trailer received and hopeful about the second release doing well. “The beautifully-delivered dialogues by my father in this movie, which celebrated actors such as Rajini, Kamal and Sathyaraj know by heart, and historic scenes featuring stalwarts such as Padmini, Gemini Ganesan and OAK Thevar that ran the test of time will definitely be liked by the youngsters as well,” he assured.
Considering the performance in this movie as one of his dad’s best, he expressed gratitude to the team for having preserved the movie so long and hoped that all other historic movies in which Sivaji acted, are restored.
Such historical and mythological movies of Sivaji Ganesan, added Murali, will appeal to all generations and there is a need to preserve them for years to come. Karnan, which was digitally restored earlier was re-released, did well, running to packed theatres.
History Lesson
Sivaji Ganesan has acted in the drama Veerapandiya... more than 116 times.
The film was the first Indian and Tamil movie to bag the awards for best actor, music and best film at Asia-Africa film festival at Cairo in 1960.