KADAMBARI SRIVASTAVA
NOSTALGIC NOTES
Mehbooba - Sholay
Sholay was an iconic movie, it still is. Who can forget the
legendary characters, dialogues, and even the music. RD
Burman’s tunes breathed life into this ambitious drama
which was a big box office failure upon its immediate release,
but turned out to be the biggest blockbuster with time. From
Amitabh Bachchan’s Jai and Dharmendra’s Veeru, to Hema
Malini’s Basanti, Amzad Khan’s Gabbar, Sanjeev Kumar’s
Thakur, and many more, Sholay rings out loud with its legacy,
to date. The movie has a plethora of trivia and is a study
material on cinema itself. If one opens pages of the past, one
would find many gems that would spill out, narrating stories
in bits and snippets.
One such story is about the making of the iconic track
‘Mehbooba’.
Remember the song? How can one even forget. ‘Mehbooba’
featured Helen, in one of her most seductive yet graceful
songs ever, with quintessential RD Burman tunes and croons
which went on to become a cult favourite. But do you know the
interesting story behind its making? Even more interesting, do
you know that the actor who discovered the making, was not
even a part of this magnum opus? Well, let us enlighten you.
It happened so that the actor who chanced upon this
extraordinary quest to find the perfect tune, was Randhir
Kapoor. The Kapoor scion, who was a sought-after actor
himself at the moment, walked in upon Pancham Da’s tune-
finding process. When he reached RD’s office, he found the
latter doing something weird. The music director, along with
his team, was blowing air into half-filled beer bottles. Kapoor,
while narrating this at a later interview, said that at that
moment, he thought that everyone in the room had gone mad.
However, turned out that they were trying out a new type of
sound. This is the sound that you get to hear at the start of
‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’.
Fascinating, isn’t it? Who would have thought that empty beer
bottles and air could create something which would go on to
become a part of one of the most iconic numbers in the history
of Bollywood. ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’ rocked the charts then,
and it surely is on the playlist of many, even now. We have
numerous gadgets, applications, and electronic appliances
today to create new tunes and sounds. Hence, it is simply
enthralling to know how brilliance was created with the
help of basic minimum, at that time. Pancham Da truly was
a rockstar. He surely knew how to make his own tune dance
to his nuances. He made his own ‘Mehbooba’ and created
an eternal muse. ‘Sholay’ would never have been complete
without legendary number, one with Helen’s moves and
Pancham Da’s tunes.
The
Score Magazine
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