Kitne Aadmi The?

He was a struggler, trying to find a good role - despite his father having been in the film industry for more than a couple of decades - when he landed this role. Actually he was not even the first choice. Rather, this was a role that came to him due to the actor preferred first could not find dates to do this role.

The movie was a multi-starrer with actors of great calibre and well repute, among whom he had to ensure that his presence did not remain as just another actor. Fortunately for him, the role was meaty, of a kind, which Hindi movies had never seen earlier. Yet, the movie, when finally released, to take advantage of the long weekend coinciding with 15th August, was found to be lengthy, violent, and was trashed by almost every one. In fact, within its first week of release, it was written off as a flop - a complete commercial disaster.

Years later, this movie remains, one of the highest grosser of Hindi Cinema - and the first movie to have run for an uninterrupted period of five years in one theater. The actor, or rather the character he played, an evil personified, has retained the highest recall. He, of course, went on to create some more memorable characters and was rated as one of the finest actors of Hindi cinema. 

Amjad Khan aka Gabbar Singh of Sholay!

Wondering, Where does Pancham fits in? 

Well, one of the lesser talked about talent of RD was his penchant & attention to the details for a background score. Using different instruments, sometimes innovative ones, was a trick he often used to highlight the mood of a scene. In Sholay, apart from the four central male characters, Pancham's background score & Dwarka Divecha's photography further enhanced the impact of the movie.

Have a look at this scene from the movie - perhaps one of the most well-known ones!

The Banshee kind of wail (created through organ & cello) in the background, the highlighted sound of Gabbar's boots as he walks, a bit of guitar stumming, and then the rolling sound of the revolver, while Gabbar plays the Russian roulette with the life of his failed comerades! If Amjad played the character to the hilt - doing complete justice to the thought process that Salim-Javed had while scripting Gabbar, the music brought out the menace he was supposed to be, and helped in creating a character that is iconic even after 4 decades.

This was the magic of Pancham!