MUMBAI: As indie films are appearing in centre stage once again, ‘Om Darbadar’ an old classic from the 1980’s has been given a fresh lease of life, by being digitally restored by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC)

The avant garde film ‘Om Darbadar’, directed by Kamal Swaroop, is gearing up for a re-release in a new, digitally enhanced avatar. The story of a young boy excelling in science, but who is equally curious about magic and religion, ‘Om Darbadar’ even won the Filmfare Critics award for Best Film in 1989.

Cited as being ahead of it’s time when it released way back in 1988, ‘Om Darbadar’ managed to challenge the traditional narrative style of filmmaking and gave the audiences a glimpse of an entirely unexplored genre.

The NFDC, who was also the primary financier of the 1988 cult classic, has taken pains to restore ‘Om Darbadar’, and re-release the film later this year.

The film’s director Kamal Swaroop was understandably delighted about the news of his film seeing a re-release. He said, “Yes, they are doing it. Right now we are working on incorporating the English subtitles and once that process is completed, NFDC will release the film.”

Crediting the enthusiasm of a film critic and certain film enthusiasts, who wanted to watch the film on 70mm, Swaroop added: “Film critic Baradwaj Rangan bought NFDC’s attention to my film. Also, there was a lot of demand by a bunch of film enthusiasts who wanted to watch the film on the silver screen. With Ms. Nina Gupta’s support (MD, NFDC), we traced the original negative and started working on its restoration.”

The GM of NFDC’s film production department, Vikramjit Roy said, “The idea is to introduce a whole new generation to this classic. We do not have a release date yet, but we will finalise it soon.”