Review: Sholay (1975)

Release Date: 15th August, 1975, Cinema only source of Entertainment for people…political situation very tumultuous in the country (emergency is already on since 25th June, 1975)

Starcast: Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan, Amjad Khan, Jagdeep, A.K. Hangal

Starcase Introduction:

1)Sanjeev Kumar gave Khilona in 1970, Seeta aur Geeta in 1972, Koshish (1972), Aandhi on 13th February, 1975)- Well established and well known in industry.
2)Dharmendra: Bandini (1963), Anupama (1966), Satyakam (1969), Naya Zamana (1971), Mera Gaon Mera Des (1971), Seeta aur Geeta (1972)- Well established in industry. Rated one of most handsome men of world in mid-seventies (year and date unavailable, thus assumption it was before 15th August, 1975). Very well established in the industry.
3)Hema Malini: Johnny Mera Naam 1970), Paraya Dhan (1971), Seeta aur Geeta (1972)
4)Jaya Bachchan: Guddi (1971), Zanjeer (1973), Abhimaan (1973)…Married to Amitabh Bachchan at the time of Sholay (1975)…married in 1973, an established and famous couple (on and off-screen)
5)Amitabh Bachchan- Zanjeer (1973) that established him as Young Angry Man, Abhimaan (1973), Namak Haram (1973), Roti Kapda aur Makaan (1974), Majboor (1974)…Very well established in the industry.

Why was Sholay Unique:
1)New Experiment of multi Super-hit star cast…3 main lead actors and 2 main lead actresses
2)Carried all flavors of a commercial Masala movie-Comedy, action, tragedy, drama, emotion, romance (explicit-Basanti and Veeru and implicit-Jaya and Radha), revenge gabbar’s from Thakur, Thakur’s and Veeru’s from gabbar), sacrifice (Jaya’s for Veeru by having head on both sides of coin, basanti for veeru by dancing for his life), cruelty (gabbar killing sachin when he going out of Ramgarh for job)…

a)This helped project movie to all kind of audience-Those who like Comedy, Those who like Action, Those who like Emotion etc. Thus, movie didn’t have a specific segment where to position it, but it could be generally positioned across all the segment of society and across all age-groups…This helped expand audience base of the movie, thus made it a success… I find it the biggest possible reason for Sholay’s success…
b)Missed Sex part: Movie didn’t have Sex or even innuendo part at all. This could make it a family movie, could make it for all age-groups, could make people talk about it at homes…Remember it’s 1975 and not 2010! Thus audience base widened and movie SOLD!

3)Killing Hero (Jaya) in the end- This didn’t use to happen too often in 1970s, as that era was known for Happy-ending. Killing Jaya in the climax was the trump card for the success of movie. This helped spread the word for Sholay like forest-fire.

4)Subtle love between Hero and a Widow: Radical, unorthodox, revolutionary, very suitable and apt during radical Emergency era of 1975 (imposed by Indira Gandhi)…CHANGE WAS THE KEY in people’s mindset in emergency and this Subtle Love unintentionally got the opportunity to SHOLAY to leverage it.

5)Re-defining the Villain: Till now, villain used to be white-collared. This means they used to be respectable people of society doing smuggling under-the-blanket…They used to be refined, sophisticated, having savoir faire (Ajit, Pran, Prem Kumar, Madan Puri)…but then Sippy introduced Gabbar Singh-crude, unrefined, brutal, cruel, unforgiving…He was introduced killing his 3 loyals…This was innovative!

6)Repeat-Value of dialogues: Dialogues in Sholay were one-liners and had repeat-value. This could help common-man remember it and use it once-and-again. This helped spread word-of-mouth and was 2nd biggest reason (after movie’s positioning for all audience) for its mega-success.

Sholay Story, screenplay, direction and Creativity (most important):
The story starts with Thakur looking for Jaya and Veeru to take revenge from dacoit Gabbar. This is because Jaya and Veeru, though rougues are brave and human. Thakur has already witnessed their bravery once when they combated the dacoits on their own and even saved life of Thakur when they could instead flee.

Creativity:
Movie proceeds with creative comic punches of Soorma Bhopali, Asrani (Hum Angrezon ke zamaane ke jailer hain), aadhe daayain (right) jaao…aadhe baayain (left) jaao…baaki mere peeche aao…when there’s no one left, then keshto mukherjee as informer of Asrani, then jaya-veeru playing pranks with Asrani through Keshto mukherjee, these were very creative, well-thought, humorous and full-enough to make people talk about these when out of the theatre.

Then Thakur invites them to Ramgarh…hence Basanti is introduced. Very fine characteristic of the movie which Ramesh sippy very subtly showed was the characters’ character. Veeru is shown shrewd, Basanti very talkative though saying she is laconic, Jaya very forward and to-the-point…which is apparent from his one-liners like “Tumhara naam kya hai basanti”, “Thakur Baldev Singh ke ghar jaana hai”, “Putting cotton in his ears by Jaya”, “basanti saying tumhari baton main raaste ka pata hi nahi chala and Jaya immediately responding –“Haan hamain baat karne ki aadat zara jyaada hai” are so humorous that one surely carries them back home from Theatre.

“Jaya taking basanti to back of temple where Veeru is trying smart with Basanti”, “Jaya’s conversation with Mausi”…these punches make audience stay awake, alert, attentive, attracted, interested to the movie, and on top of that, it made them carry memories of the movie with them when out. And yes, “That famous water tank scene where Veeru is murdering English” is very funny.

Dichotomous character of Radha came out very well. Showing that 3 minute scene when Thakur Baldev Singh going to meet Radha’s father(Iftikhar) showed jovial character of Radha very apparently. This came out very realistic.

“Kitne aadmi the kaliya” gave common man a dialogue so that when he is with his friends in his office, canteen or street, he would very often use this “Kitne aadmi the” and that made Sholay talk-of-the-town and hence very famous.

Sholay Songs: Sholay was on top not only in creative dialogues, funny punches but also in songs. “Yeh Dosti hum nahi shodenge”, “Koi haseen jab rooth jaati hai”, “Main naachoongi”, “Mehbooba mehbooba”, “Holi ke din” are songs that people kept singing every now and then led to Sholay’s success.

Sholay Festival Strategy: 1975, life is still not very fast paced, festivals are still being celebrated. And as Holi is India’s very special festival, Sholay showcases Holi twice (one when Thakur goes to meet Iftikhaar and 2nd when Gabbar asks Holi kab hai, kab hai Holi). This strategy did the trick and people could connect with this festival very well.

What Sholay missed:
1)One scene that I would have loved in the movie would have been Veeru talking to Thakur asking Radha’s hand for Jaya, but that scene is missing. When Jaya went to Basanti’s Mausi asking for basanti-veeru marriage, Sippy showed that as a very funny scene. But when Veeru would have gone to Thakur to ask for radha-jaya marriage, it could be shown as a very sincere serious scene, encouraging widow marriage. This is what he missed, and we had to wait till Baabul (2006) to come to showcase this. That could be a great for social-reform through Sholay!Movie seriously missed a great ending. Giving Gabbar back to police so that he can flee the jail again was a faux pas in the movie, that too when he has already delivered the dialogue that no jail can keep gabbar in jail for 20 years. Ideal ending would be Thakur killing Gabbar despite police appeal and then crying for the first time, which Veeru, basanti, entire village, and on top of that, Ram Lal and Radha are witnessing for first time. Then Radha coming to Thakur and both hugging and crying…Radha for Jaya and Thakur for his family which Gabbar killed. And police rewarding Thakur (coz Gabbar is wanted Zinda ya Murdaa)…current ending was Anti-Climax.

2)One memory this movie missed big time…and that is 1-minute or 30 second conversation between Radha and Jaya. Had I been a director, I would have had a 1 minute conversation between both where Radha opening up her pain for first and last time in the movie. This could probably be a legendary conversation like of Amitabh Bachchan and God in Deewar “Aaj khush toh bahut hoge tum” or Amit ji and Shashi Kapoor ji’s “Mere paas Maa hai” conversation.

3)I would have loved another 30-60 second interaction between Basanti and Radha in the movie, may be in the temple. Basanti’s talkative nature and talk-talk-talk would have reminded Radha of her old-times. I wanted to subtly show Radha’s pain, Thakur’s pain portraying it classically…