Sometime Back, actually some 25 years back a family went to see a movie. The whole crowd in the theatre was engrossed in the movie, and then there came a scene that made a boy go wild. The villain was making the heroine dance on glass pieces. Now this boy was a Gentle man ( he was gentle, he was man enough) and hence didn’t like a lady suffer over glass pieces. So he started asking his dad ‘to beat that bearded fat man’. When his dad didn’t oblige, the boy started asking the men among fellow viewers to beat that man and save that lady. And when the ‘angry young boy’ was not consolable, his parents took him out of the theatre. Upon returning after sometime the boy was happy at the climax.
Years later this boy grew up, to recount this event in a movie review on Sholay, on MS. If u still didn’t get it, the boy was ‘yours sincerely’ and u are now reading that very review on Sholay. Even today I laugh at myself when I think of the above said event. Now I know that was a reaction in pure innocence.
Over the years I have seen the movie many times, but never react the way I did the first time. Still every single time I see this movie I like it all the more. This to me is one of the best hindi films ever made. Everything abt this movie seems right. The star studded cast, the story line, the location, the dialogues, the songs and above all the acting of each character. And the story had a perfect combination of humour, romance, violence, vengeance, and drama. Bcos of these even 30yrs after its release, there is an aura abt the movie. Perhaps in those times movies were made out of some passion. There have been a million movies in hindi abt thakurs and dacoits and gaonwalo. But none as big and hit as sholay.
Most of us know the story. Still for the benefit of those who haven’t seen, and for the ppl belonging to Gen X ( or even Y, Z ) who may not have seen the movie, let me put the story in a nutshell. The story has a honest cop (sanjeev kumar) who captures a dreaded dacoit and has him in jail. This comes as a relief to the village. But this is shortlived, as the dacoit Gabbar singh ( amjad khan) escapes from prison. And he has his revenge over thakur ie cop. He wipes out all of his family except for few. And also gabbar cuts off thakurs both hands.
Without hands thakur cant afford to take revenge over gabbar. So he takes help of two ‘good criminals’ jay, veeru played by Amitabh and dharmendra. They happen to be close friends. The song “yeh dosti hum nahin thodenge” celebrates their friendship. Once they reach the village with thakur there is romance between veeru and hema malini who playes a tangawali basanti. Also there is a silent romance between jay and a widow played by jaya badhuri. (Compare with the movies of today where they are trying to sell sleaze as romance, and lust as love.) !! Slowly they get a feel of the village and one fine day gabbars team comes for hafta vasooli. Veeru and jay fight them. And they have to go back emptyhanded, only to die at the hands of gabbar.
Soon gabbar gets to know abt the duo. By this time the heroes also make it their mission to get rid of gabbar. And after many a twists and turns the story comes to a decisive phase, where in jay loses his life, but finally the righteous prevail over the bad elements.
There are a lot of scenes which one will remember even after coming out of the theatre. There is a scene in which veeru climbs over a watertank and threatens to jump if basanti isn’t married to him. Her mousie is against. And he speaks some classic English in his drunkenness. That’s good humour. The village life is caputured very well, like the holi song. Etc. also there is a good item number in the form of mehbooba mehbooba. Even though there weren’t AK-47, etc. the action scenes are well done with simple guns and horses. As in all movies the police come after everything is over.
Another thing I liked abt the movie was its dialogues. Even today we see many a ads copying or spoofing some dialogues of this movie. Especially the dialogues of gabbar like “kitney aadmi the ?”, “in haathon mein bahut jaan hain, thakur, yeh haath muje de de”, “jab tak tere phair chalegi, iski saas rukegi, teri pahir rukhegi to iski bandook chalegi” ..and many more. Though thakur talks less his dialogues are also good, like his saying “gabbar saanponko haathon se nahin, phaironse kuchla jaata hain”.
The movie is a wholesome entertainer, a kind of movie one can watch with all the family members. unlike before we don’t have to wait for the movie to come to a theatre, we always have the option of hiring a CD. So if u haven’t still watched it why delay? Or u can wait for some channel to air it ..but then u will be watching more commercials in duration than the movie itself.