New tracks for 3-D Sholay
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Film and entertainment journalist Chaitanya Padukone writes in to mark a special day:
Lakhs of ardent RDB fans the world over will be celebrating the occasion, listening and dancing to his evergreen chartbusters. But one diehard RDB fan for whom this day is extra-special is prolific composer – singer Raju Singh, who has been specially invited by the popular Pune-based Pancham Magic fan club, to share nostalgic anecdotes.
That’s because the techno-savvy melody-wizard has been assigned the tough task of recreating the audio-tracks of cult film Sholay, for its upcoming 3-D version. Raju is enthusiastic. “Its all thanks to Panchamda’s blessings and the timely references of Javed Akhtar saab and my associate sound designers Kunal Mehta and Parikshit Lalwan, that I have been assigned the challenging responsibility of replicating and recreating the background music sound tracks of Sholay, for its upcoming 3-D version which is to be released by August this year.”
For the re-creation, they have used the latest hi-tech Dolby Atmos surround sound acoustics which apparently promise a “mind-blowing feel-the-music experience” to movie goers.
Raju himself is an expert guitar player who has had the privilege of playing for RDB’s song recordings and background scores for nearly six years up to 1993. This includes the late maestro’s iconic swansong ‘1942: A Love Story’.
Raju nostalgically explains, “Since my father Charanjit Singh, an acclaimed electronic keyboards player, used to regularly play for RDB’s recordings, as a kid, I used to attend those sessions. That’s how Panchamda became fond of me and pampered me with chocolates every time. Many years later, when I started playing bass guitar, he insisted that I join his team of musicians. For me it was a dream come true. It was such a passionate pleasure jamming with the genius RDB and his team, since he would constantly come up with tunes and conjure up bizarre sound effects. Even after I joined him, he would still bring chocolates for me.”
‘Sholay’ star Dharmendra is also all praise for the meticulous mission to re-create the audio tracks of the film for the 3-D version.. Reveals Raju, “We happened to be in the same studios where Dharamji’s YPD-2 recordings were also taking place. It was such a huge accolade for us when, with tears in his eyes, he remarked that the 3-D Sholay with its awesome acoustics would be an ideal gift to the centenary of Indian Cinema,” he added.
We’ve come a long way, baby!
Let’s face it. Traveling by our locals is an ordeal. Trying to buy a season ticket is a seemingly bigger one. And we are so pleased to report that this is now, officially, a breeze that wafts to you online!
A couple of weeks ago, we began our first long-term adventure with local trains and decided to opt for a first class pass. Standing at dirty, mucky Kurla station in the queue for a pass was definitely not appealingly, so we spoke to a friend who said she used the IRCTC website to book her pass.
Prepared to encounter the worst, we logged on, created an ID, entered stations and waited with bated breath, ready for something to go wrong. Two seconds later, we were redirected to the payment page, checked internet banking as the payment option and voila, we were done!
If the online process wasn’t enough to leave us amazed, the delivery process did. The spanking new season ticket reached us within two days, in a clean white glazed envelope with a label properly printed with the correct name and address.
The railways are generally at the receiving end of our ire, but when it comes to customer service in this case, they get an A+.
Lakhs of ardent RDB fans the world over will be celebrating the occasion, listening and dancing to his evergreen chartbusters. But one diehard RDB fan for whom this day is extra-special is prolific composer – singer Raju Singh, who has been specially invited by the popular Pune-based Pancham Magic fan club, to share nostalgic anecdotes.
That’s because the techno-savvy melody-wizard has been assigned the tough task of recreating the audio-tracks of cult film Sholay, for its upcoming 3-D version. Raju is enthusiastic. “Its all thanks to Panchamda’s blessings and the timely references of Javed Akhtar saab and my associate sound designers Kunal Mehta and Parikshit Lalwan, that I have been assigned the challenging responsibility of replicating and recreating the background music sound tracks of Sholay, for its upcoming 3-D version which is to be released by August this year.”
For the re-creation, they have used the latest hi-tech Dolby Atmos surround sound acoustics which apparently promise a “mind-blowing feel-the-music experience” to movie goers.
Raju himself is an expert guitar player who has had the privilege of playing for RDB’s song recordings and background scores for nearly six years up to 1993. This includes the late maestro’s iconic swansong ‘1942: A Love Story’.
Raju nostalgically explains, “Since my father Charanjit Singh, an acclaimed electronic keyboards player, used to regularly play for RDB’s recordings, as a kid, I used to attend those sessions. That’s how Panchamda became fond of me and pampered me with chocolates every time. Many years later, when I started playing bass guitar, he insisted that I join his team of musicians. For me it was a dream come true. It was such a passionate pleasure jamming with the genius RDB and his team, since he would constantly come up with tunes and conjure up bizarre sound effects. Even after I joined him, he would still bring chocolates for me.”
‘Sholay’ star Dharmendra is also all praise for the meticulous mission to re-create the audio tracks of the film for the 3-D version.. Reveals Raju, “We happened to be in the same studios where Dharamji’s YPD-2 recordings were also taking place. It was such a huge accolade for us when, with tears in his eyes, he remarked that the 3-D Sholay with its awesome acoustics would be an ideal gift to the centenary of Indian Cinema,” he added.
We’ve come a long way, baby!
Let’s face it. Traveling by our locals is an ordeal. Trying to buy a season ticket is a seemingly bigger one. And we are so pleased to report that this is now, officially, a breeze that wafts to you online!
A couple of weeks ago, we began our first long-term adventure with local trains and decided to opt for a first class pass. Standing at dirty, mucky Kurla station in the queue for a pass was definitely not appealingly, so we spoke to a friend who said she used the IRCTC website to book her pass.
Prepared to encounter the worst, we logged on, created an ID, entered stations and waited with bated breath, ready for something to go wrong. Two seconds later, we were redirected to the payment page, checked internet banking as the payment option and voila, we were done!
If the online process wasn’t enough to leave us amazed, the delivery process did. The spanking new season ticket reached us within two days, in a clean white glazed envelope with a label properly printed with the correct name and address.
The railways are generally at the receiving end of our ire, but when it comes to customer service in this case, they get an A+.
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