A restored print of Chimney Ki Chhaon, a 1962 black-and-white drama about a schoolteacher in a mill town, will open the Lakeview City Film Festival next month, organisers announced.
The restoration took two years. Archivists worked from two damaged reels found in a private collection and a worn print held by a film society, scanning each frame and repairing scratches, tears and flicker by hand and with software.
"Some frames looked like they had been through a war," said lead restorer Farhan Mirza. "We had to decide, frame by frame, what to repair and what to leave, so the film still looks like 1962 and not like a modern imitation."
What was recovered
- Seven minutes of footage cut from the original release, found on one of the private reels.
- The original soundtrack, cleaned of hiss but not re-recorded.
- The opening titles, which had been missing from all known prints.
The festival will screen the film with new English and Hindi subtitles, followed by a conversation with the restoration team and the director's granddaughter.
Film historians say many films from the period survive only in fragile prints. The restoration team hopes Chimney Ki Chhaon will encourage families and collectors to report old reels before they decay beyond repair.
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