This movie is generally known as the most popular Indian movie ever. It ran in the theater for several years. If I’m not mistaken its’ record remained unbroken for twenty years, until DDLJ came along. So I’m sure everyone has seen this already but anyway...
Sholay is the story of Jai(Amitabh Bacchan) and Veeru(Dharmendra), two small-time crooks who swear eternal friendship in one song. The quietly sarcastic personality of Jai and the carefree personality of Veeru complement each other nicely. They swing in and out of jail, until their existence comes to a virtual standstill one day. Thakur Sahib, a police officer who had met the two earlier, summons them to Rampur. (Sanjeev Kumar plays the role of Thakur with understated intensity. His performance was second only to Amjad Khan’s). The citizens of Rampur are being terrorized by Gabbar Singh, a dacoit. Thakur wants Jai and Veeru to protect the village. Besides hating Singh on behalf of the village, Thakur also has his own personal history with the most famous filmi villain ever(as is shown in a series of flashbacks). Jai and Veeru don’t understand why THEY are the ones Thakur wants to fight Gabbar Singh; in one of the more famous lines of the movie, Thakur says, ’’Kyonki lohe, lohe ko kaat tha hai.’’
While Veeru’s helping Jai defend the village, he falls for the compulsive talker and (for lack of a better word)village transporter Basanti (Hema Malini, in the most famous role she has ever played besides Dream Girl). Jaya Bahaduri plays the widowed daughter-in-law of Thakur, Radha, who falls in love with Jai when she hears him playing music.
I guess the only major defect of this movie is that it didn’t spend enough time on the relationship between Radha and Jai. My only other complaint about Sholay is the music, but it isn’t a big deal. I’ll take a great movie with lousy music over a lousy movie with great music any day. I did like the ’’Mehbooba Mehbooba’’ song, though the yodeling was kinda cheesy(:
Otherwise every scene in this movie is an instant classic: the ’’main angrez ke jamane ka jailer hoon’’ scene, the murder scene, the drunken scene, the Shiv scene, the mosque scene, the ’’kithne aadmi the’’ scene. My favorite: the scene where Jai tries to fix Veeru’s marriage for him. Each scene smoothly flows in to the other, keeping you spellbound. This movie has to be seen to be believed.
Oh, and I have to add something about Amjad Khan’s performance. This is definitely a villain-centered film. If it wasn’t for Gabbar Singh, Sholay wouldn’t be Sholay. There’s no question about it. My mom said that every little Indian kid in India must have memorized all of Gabbar Singh’s dialogues. I even heard that Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bacchan, and Dharmendra all wanted to do Gabbar Singh’s role... but in the end they found Amjad Khan, and the rest is history.