1975
Sholay went on to become the most successful film in Indian film
history
Sholay
Sholay can be said to have inaugurated the modern period of
commercial Hindi cinema. Often described as India's best-known
"curry" western, Sholay was 'patterned' on American spaghetti
westerns, though as with any other good Hindi film, the presumed
'copy' is at least as interesting as the 'original'. The addition
of romance, comedy, and songs gave it the ambiance that one expects
of a Hindi film. The film narrates the story of an ex-cop Thakur
Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) who hires two jail birds (Amitabh
Bachchan and Dharmendra) to eradicate a town and neighbouring
villages of the menace of Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) and his band of
dreaded dacoits. The story is told in two flashbacks and the climax
shows the final encounter between Thakur and Gabbar Singh, where
Thakur, whose arms have been cut off, kicks the bandit into
submission.
The film made use of several interesting innovations. This included
its spectacular cinematography, with shots panning over rocky
heights and barren canyons, often under menacing clouds. This lends
the movie much of its eerie tension. One of the long opening
scenes, which shows a train being defended by Baldev Singh against
an attack by bandits, is quite spectacular in its effects, and is
reminiscent of similar scenes in westerns, most notably John Ford's
"Stagecoach" (1939). Sholay, likewise, plays upon themes of nature
versus culture, the encroachment of nature upon culture, and the
meaning of civilization in wilderness.
But Sholay will also be remembered for the heights it took villainy
to in Indian films. Unlike earlier villains who were content to
bring about a misunderstanding between the lovers' families, Amjad
Khan's Gabbar seems to pursue evil as an end in itself. Yet the
theme of banditry is old to Hindi films, and Gabbar is still very
much unlike the villains of the contemporary cinema: he has no
visible interest in wealth, though he appropriates the produce of
the villagers, nor does he particualarly lust after women. Though
the film depicts the usual Indian themes of loyalty in friendship
and love, what is notable is an almost total absence of family
values. The two heroes have no visible family ties, neither has the
heroine Hema Malini. One expects this of bandits, but not of those
who are 'good'. Indeed, it is arguable that the "family", though it
is presumed to be the quintessential unit of Indian society, is
almost always splintered, broken, or non-existent in the modern
Hindi film, though no one has ever analyzed the phenomenon.
Sholay went on to become the most successful film in Indian film
history. The large cast of super-stars contributed to that, as did
the memorable dialogues between Gabbar and Baldev Singh, and
between Gabbar and his henchmen. Amjad Khan played the role with
perfection, and not without sardonic humor. His lines became so
popular that cassettes of Gabbar's dialogues were being sold
separately, to be learnt by rote by millions of movie goers. The
flirting between Hema Malini, who plays a buxom bucolic woman, and
the heroes also provides its own brand of dialogue.