'B'day Gift' tribute for legendary R D Burman at 50th Anniversary screening of Uncut 'SHOLAY in Italy on June 27th? by Chaitanya Padukone

"Puray pachaas saal !!
Mega blockbuster Sholay (1975) the iconic, timeless action-emotional-musical thriller film of the millennium of all time, directed by 'showman' Ramesh Sippy, will have its glitter-glam grand premiere of its fully restored, uncut version at the prestigious Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy. The screening, commemorating the film's Sholay's (golden jubilee) 50th anniversary, will take place on June 27, 2025 at the open-air Piazza Maggiore. 
What seems a classic coincidence is that June 27th also happens to the 86th birth anniversary of iconic Sholay composer-singer  RDBurman.. It may be recalled that the 70mm movie 'Sholay had awesome stereophonic sound, which music director Pancham-da ( RDBurman) used to maximum movie advantage very skillfully..

For the genius innovative  'Sholay' legendary 'late' music director Pancham-da(RDB),  this historic premiere event will be a unique tribute Bday Gift! The zestful Pancham-da not only sang the iconic Mehbooba Mehbooba and composed the other evergreen songs, including 'Yeh Dosti',  but also came up with an innovative background score! And of course, he composed the fabulous evergreen Sholay title music! Which had a fantastic 'fusion' of western strumming-drumming and Indian folk melody flavours! The memorable impactful background score ( BGM) highlights comprised the banshee-type ominous wail marking dreaded dacoit chief Gabbar Singh's ( Amjad Khan)  menacing screen-entry or the fast-rhythmic tabla beats during Basanti's ( Hema Malini) ghoda-gaadi ( taangewali) being chased by the horse-riding dacoits and for many other on-screen situations.

Produced by the illustrious G P Sippy, the 'Sholay' story-screenplay-dialogues is by super-talented iconic duo Javed-Akhtar whereas the song lyrics were by Anand Bakshi, the cinematography by Dwarka Divecha! However, genius film-editor M S Shinde was the only creative person from the Sholay crew to win the Filmfare Award (1976)! The mega-movie Sholay was actually released on August 15th, 1975 and ran continuously for Five ( 05) years in the magnificent Minerva theatre, in central Mumbai area.

Since as an eminent film-journalist I  had interviewed R D Burman numerous times and knew him personally for 10 years, he had shared with me, how he dedicated his innovative musical and vocal supreme talents for 'Sholay.

And he also shared with me, how excited he was when he was nominated in Filmfare Awards (1976) in the Best Playback Singer (Male) category for his chartbuster evergreen solo song 'Mehbooba Mehbooba' picturised on Jalal Agha and Helen and also nominated in Best Music Director category for 'Sholay'. Although he did not win any Filmfare Awards that year, the sporting-nature Pancham-da was very happy just to be nominated against the other hugely-talented composers and singers!    

The Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) and Sippy Films have joined hands for the special showcase of the director's cut of the 1975 landmark cult magnificent movie ! The three-years restoration work, a collaborative project of the Film Heritage Foundation (Shivendra Singh Dungarpur) and Sippy Films, was accomplished over three years. Dynamic Shehzad Sippy from Sippy Films termed the three years world-class restoration efforts as a meticulous endeavour. The restored Sholay version has the 'original ending', where dreaded dacoit Gabbar Singh gets brutally killed by Thakur and several deleted crucial scenes which will now be seen on-screen, for the first time!

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