123456 Kolkata: Film aficionados are shocked that the only surviving VHS tapes of Mrinal Sen's Hindi TV series ‘Kabhi Door Kabhi Paas' were "lost" at customs after they were couriered by his son, Kunal Sen, from the US to India for restoration at the National Film Archive (NFAI) of India. Kunal reported the loss on his social media handle on Jan 26.
Kunal highlighted how someone recently wanted to know about the 12-part television series that his father produced in the early 1980s and its availability for viewing. "My father sent me some of these short films on VHS tape since I was already in Chicago by then. I found these tapes a few years ago and digitised them. The image quality is poor, but this is probably the only copy that exists," he wrote.
Despite not possessing the copyright, he chose to upload nine of the episodes on YouTube. Many viewers were captivated by how the iconic director emphasised man-woman relationships. The episodes include ‘After a Decade', ‘Two Sisters', ‘The Unvanquished', ‘The Victory', ‘The Anniversary', ‘The Stranger', ‘Modern Times', ‘Swayamvar', ‘The Shawl' and ‘Kabhi Door Kabhi Paas' and feature a cast comprising Aparna Sen, Girish Karnard, Surekha Sikri, Anita Kanwar, Pankaj Kapur, Dhritiman Chaterji, Neena Gupta, Manohar Singh, and Deepti Naval, amongst others.
Upon discovering the episodes online, NFAI suggested they could create an enhanced restoration if Kunal forwarded the tapes to them. He consented and dispatched them via FedEx. "However, the VHS tapes were lost in Mumbai customs. So, once Doordarshan recorded over the high-resolution tapes, and then the poorer copy was lost again in customs. Now, these are the only digital copies left," he wrote.
Calls to NFAI officials from TOI didn't get any response till the edition went to print. Kunal told TOI the original tapes were not lost. "They were apparently reused to record something else. After reaching the customs, the VHS could not be traced. NFAI told me they tried to trace it but failed. Years back, the original negative of ‘Antareen' also got lost at the Kolkata customs," Kunal added.
Firdasul Hasan, president of Film Federation of India, said, "It is a highly irresponsible act. So much got lost because of this." He produced ‘Padatik' that is inspired by the icon's life.