I finally managed to watch Sholay on the big screen albeit in the remastered 3D format, after having seen it multiple times on the small screen. Nothing much to say about the movie itself, as I can but only gauge its impact when it was released in 1975. No wonder why it ran for months (years?) in some theatres on its original release.
However, when it comes to the 3D and remastering parts, I have my reservations:
- The picture quality was considerably affected due to the 3D processing as it requires the frame to be brightened up considerably (3D glasses do block out a lot of light after all) and this leads to highlight clipping. The movie frames looked like it had gone through a budget image processor’s auto adjust & enhance tool.
- Considerable parts of the movie are without much 3D effects, i.e., no double images for stereo vision separation. So, you can actually watch those parts without the 3D glasses and actually enjoy it more, and this is what I did for most of the movie. Kind of defeats the whole Sholay in 3D part.
- They also recomposed and rerecorded considerable parts of the soundtrack (for the surround effects I presume), and this is most noticeable in the wrong ways during the songs. I found the vocal leads pretty subdued with the music blaring through. On top of it, the vocals & music seemed slightly out of sync due to the rerecording. If you have listened to the HMV\SaReGaMa Classic Revival pieces, then you’ll understand what I mean.
They should have probably skipped the George Lucasization and just released it on the big screen for the current generation a la the original Chashme Baddoor. Incidentally, there’s a Sholay Director’s Cut where Thakur kills Gabbar.
AB's Reflections 