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The 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI 2025) volition wage tribute to the nation’s cinematic practice with the presumption of 18 restored classics, brought backmost to beingness nether the National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM) by the NFDC–National Film Archive of India (NFAI). Curated arsenic portion of the Indian Panorama Special Package, this enactment spans Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, and Marathi cinema, reflecting a immense spectrum of creator look preserved with rigorous archival standards.
This year’s programme carries exceptional humanities resonance. It commemorates 125 years of V. Shantaram portion offering centenary tributes to Guru Dutt, Raj Khosla, Ritwik Ghatak, Bhupen Hazarika, P. Bhanumati, Salil Choudhury, and K. Vaikunth. The festival besides marks 50 years of NFDC, underscoring its pivotal relation successful shaping modern Indian cinema. A dedicated showcase of Shyam Benegal’s Susman honours the visionary filmmaker’s enduring publication to Indian cinema.
Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan has been restored from a preserved 35mm merchandise print | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Launched by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting successful November 2016, the National Film Heritage Mission stands arsenic 1 of India’s astir ambitious preservation initiatives. Its mandate encompasses the preservation, conservation, digitisation, and restoration of India’s movie heritage—including camera negatives, merchandise prints, and uncommon archival materials sourced from rights-holders, collectors, and planetary institutions.
The Indian restored titles presented astatine IFFI 2025 exemplify the project’s rigor—frame-by-frame integer restoration and colour grading, often undertaken nether the guidance of filmmakers, cinematographers, oregon their collaborators whenever possible.
Among the highlights is Ritwik Ghatak’s Subarnarekha, restored from the 35mm maestro affirmative successful the NFDC–NFAI collection, with last colour grading supervised by cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhyay.
Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan has been restored from a preserved 35mm merchandise people aft the archetypal antagonistic deteriorated irreversibly; Ali personally supervised the grading to support the film’s distinctive chromatic elegance. His earlier milestone Gaman returns successful a recently restored version, with missing footage reconstructed from a subtitled archival print.
Equally notable are the restorations of Kalpana Lajmi’s Rudaali and B.N. Reddi’s Malleswari—each restored portion preserving textual and ocular authenticity.
The programme besides celebrates classics specified arsenic Raj Khosla’s C.I.D, Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa, and V. Shantaram’s Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, restored from surviving prints oregon dupe negatives aft archetypal materials were mislaid oregon compromised by decomposition. Modern-era films—including Ek Doctor Ki Maut, Ek Hota Vidushak, Kireedam (featuring Dadasaheb Phalke Awardee Mohanlal), and Musafir besides diagnostic successful the lineup.
One of the programme’s rarest films is Baburao Painter’s Muraliwala (1927), 1 of the fewer surviving Indian soundless films. It volition beryllium presented with a curated unrecorded philharmonic accompaniment by composer Rahul Ranade, offering audiences a sensory acquisition reminiscent of aboriginal 20th-century movie exhibition—in the beingness of Baburao Painter’s 2 surviving daughters.
Films specified arsenic Ramesh Saigal’s Shaheed (1948) and Mani Ratnam’s Gitanjali further exemplify the breadth of eras and communicative traditions represented successful this restoration slate, each rubric having posed unsocial method and archival challenges. Together, these restorations showcased astatine IFFI 2025, observe the enactment of immoderate of India’s astir influential cinematic personalities and reaffirm India’s committedness to safeguarding its moving-image heritage.
