A film that takes the reverse colour route to take Chaplin’s image

MUMBAI: In the days of colour revival of films like Mughal-e-Azam, Naya Daur and Hum Dono, there is a film that is taking the reverse route.

Director Bhavna Talwar’s Happi is being converted from its original colour scheme to black-and-white.

The film pays homage to Charlie Chaplin with Pankaj Kapur essaying the role of a desi Chaplin. The film, which was to be released on Chaplin‘s birth anniversary on 16 April, has now been delayed.

Talwar shot and completed the film in colour. “But when we saw the finished product and how profoundly sincere a tribute Pankajji had paid to Chaplin, we couldn‘t resist turning it into black-and-white because that was the colour complexion of Chaplin‘s cinematic world,” the director remarks.

“We‘ve gone from frame-to-frame with our colour revision. We also got a new film editor Sreekar Prasad to re-edit the black-and-white material,” she adds.

The film has now been slotted for a 20 May release.