It won't be an exaggeration on my part, if I state that almost all middle class Indians of my age or more, must have seen or atleast heard about this Bollywood blockbuster of 70s, 'Sholay'! I got to know that the film was considered a flop after it received poor response in the first few weeks of its release and critics too rejected it as a poor imitation of 'Western' films of Hollywood. But gradually it picked up on word of mouth and went on to become a record braking hit! The characters, the dialogues, the songs from this movie....all became legend of sorts in the popular culture. I still remember when I got a chance to see the movie in a re-screening in the theater on 70mm big screen in my hometown Jabalpur ( My jabalpuria friends will know about 'Vineet Talkies'!)...I must have been 10-12 year old then...I was accompanied by my two Mamajis, and two brothers, and I do remember how sad and teary I was..when Amitabh succumbed to death after being shot by the dacoits in the climax! :-)
Few days back when I switched on my iPOD for the title theme of Sholay....composed by one of our great music directors of old...RD Burman (Also known as Pancham da...they say that as a child whenever he cried it sounded as the 5th note...'Pa' of Indian classical music scale..hence he was named Pancham!), thought came to my mind that how he managed to compose this theme...which so perfectly conveys the mood..the plot...the style..and the cult of the movie! Or should I say...it sets up the rhythm of the movie..??
If you watch the video...the Title theme starts when the police inspector from another town comes to Ramgarh with Thakur's servant 'Ramlal' (The good old Satyen Kappu...a frequenter in Amitabh's films) to see the 'Thakur', riding horses...the theme music starts with the horse trot and guitar...and fuses-in there the drum (Not sure if it's Bongo or one of the drums of the drums kit or some other drum type...you must have noticed similar drum beats in many other RD Burman numbers)...and there enters the main piece on Saxophone by Manohari Singh (A permanent Saxophonist in RD's team of musicians)...and when the drums are full on....the whole theme is set....and then it goes all 'Indian'...with Indian drums and I guess some folk instruments...and at the end again comes back to the main piece but this time as a 'whistle' along with guitar base....a distant whistle sounding in a rocky barren valley where all those ruthless Dacoits have their abode!.....A really great blend of Western and Indian instruments to get the desired effect.....and when you watch the video they have shown the fearsome hard rock valleys and the village of Ramgarh with titles coming in 'Red'...with this theme in background...it creates a wonderful effect. Truely RDB was something different!
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