According to the synopsis published in 1972 in The Other Cinema by Indian distributor Film Niryat, BADNAM BASTI tells the story of “the loneliness of a peasant ex-criminal and his confrontation with a girl who, despite his desires, he could not possess.” Most of the films mentioned in the catalog were shown at Arsenal the same year and prints of them remained in the archive. Decades later, that 35mm print of BADNAM BASTI turned out to be unique.
Not mentioned are the film’s central themes, including human trafficking and homosexuality, which would explain the Central Board of Film Censors’ “Adults Only” rating for the initial, now lost 132-minute cut. The only surviving elements are the edit of the 35mm print in Arsenal’s archive (83 min.) and an incomplete but longer picture and sound negative from the NFDC – National Film Archive of India. The Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art has restored the film with a sequence contained exclusively in the sound negative. Funding for the digital restoration was provided by the Cultural Preservation Program of the Federal Foreign Office.
