I'm with CH on this one, I don't get caught up in whether a curry is the right shade or not. Some people on the forum talk about "old style" curries, i.e. from the 70s or 80s and I certainly do recall from the late 70s / early 80s that curries were more brown and less red but hey I've made a Madras that is brown and I've made one that is red (I went through a red phase using colour), but as long as it tastes right that is the main thing.