ASHOK’s FIVE million reasons to watch #Sholay – “The Greatest story ever told” an EXTRASPECIAL stories, trivia and much much more this weekend. I remember the glee on my face as I put up one of the first ever trivia quizzes on the internet with questions like “What was Gabbar’s father’s name?” and “What was Gabbar’s arms dealers name?”. I also remember playing Jai or Veeru in some childhood skits and pouncing on the poor child playing Gabbar. Or just sitting in the verandah at night during a power cut and singing “Yeh dosti…” and the sheer delight when the mohalla would join in! Sholay has fired the imagination of millions of Indians and shaped popular conversation and culture and remains relevant event today. The film has been used to sell products across multiple categories and redefined the identity of so many individuals.
Bollywood is divided pre Sholay and post Sholay
People who grow up in the eighties can recount a million stories around the cult classic that was Ramesh Sippy’s labour of love. The 1975 blockbuster has inspired everyday conversations, television commercials, parodies, books, corporate outbounds and stage shows for generations. 45 years later, it continues to be a dependable fall-back for television channels to rerun and continue raking in the moolah. Writing a review of Sholay is daunting, inspiring and a tribute to the art of film-making.
I must confess that watching the film for the umpteenth time was simply not enough preparation for the review. I picked up Anupama Chopra’s book “Sholay – The making of a classic” and binge read it like a man possessed as each scene and each character came alive in front of my eyes. Sholay broke a lot of myths, unwritten rules and cardinal principles laid down by the gurus of that time. The challenges on the production front are another story altogether and absorbing all this only serves to make the myth of Sholay that much more profound. The famous four-line story crafted by Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar and initially passed over by Prakash Mehra was a simple plot of an ex-army man hiring two ex-convicts to take revenge on a dacoit and ultimately killing him. What turned Sholay into a seminal work was the screenplay and the fantastic characterisation that the writer duo put in. Sholay is actually not a linear story; it is in fact a collage of visually brilliant scenes assembled together to take the story forward.
Sholay boasts of characters pairs that are unique and memorable
The songs are like curtain drops that provide you with relief and help you neutralise the emotionally charged scenes. And then there are the characters in pairs – Jai and Veeru who are friends but do not ever profess their fondness for each other till the end; trade pundits in fact ridiculed the scene where Jai goes to convince Mausi to agree and let Basanti marry Veeru. Veeru was the quintessential romantic chirpy and wearing his heart on his sleeve while Jai was strong, silent and almost cynical. Look at the tonality of the dialogues as Veeru says “Tumhara naam kya hai Basanti and Jai in the orchard scene says “Kahiyon ko inhone do ghante mein sikha diya hai” The two women are like poles apart – there is Basanti who talks nineteen to the dozen and the lady of the lamp – Radha in pristine white and communicating eloquently through her eyes. Both the women have minimal screen time but leave behind a massive impact owing to the way their characters are conceptualised. And finally, there is the principled and honour-above-all Thakur Baldev Singh versus the evil and mercenary Gabbar Singh.
Memorable characters do not need heavy dialogues or a lot of screen time. McMohan’s life changed after Sholay and his three words of fame “Poore pachaas hazaar”. Asrani had to come back in stage shows all over the word to perform the “angrezon ke zamaane ka jailor”. Jagdeep had never been to Bhopal but his Soorma Bhopali was legendary and inspired a film by that name. A K Hangal the consummate character actor flew back from Nepal to do his scenes in Sholay and his dialogue” Itna sannataa kyun hai bhai” is still common parlance. And of course, Viju Khote could never ever shake off his image of Kaalia!
Sholay broke the rules with a multi-starrer cast
The star cast was of course exemplary; imagine Amitabh Bachchan’s name featured fourth in the titles after Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Hema Malini. A press article published in 1975 actually made only a passing reference to him as Veeru’s pal.
The industry experts made fun of the cast calling them “Teen maharathi aur ek chooha”. The chooha in question was Amjad Khan and what a story that was. Amjad had been a theatre actor and his life hinged on making the cut as Gabbar. His squeaky voice turned a stumbling block and it took Ramesh Sippy to stay true to his heart and refuse to dub his voice. Gabbar went on to become a household name and Britannia for the first time used a villain to promote their biscuits! Danny Denzongpa was ear-marked to play the bad man in Sholay and had to give up his role. Such is how destinies are crafted!
Gabbar’s entry scene with the iconic back boots, chain on the rocks and the military fatigues is now legendary. Ironically, Gabbar was menacing and yet loved by adults and children alike. The scene where he takes on Kaalia and kills three of his own men has been played over and over again. Amjad looked taller and bigger than his actual self but his sing-song voice saying “Kitne Aadmi the” had just the right touch of menace laced in it! This scene alone took 40 retakes before being finalised.
Sanjeev Kumar and Amitabh both wanted to play Gabbar’s role and had to be persuaded against this. Sanjeev was an effortless actor and eventually happy to don the grey wig and play the role of Thakur, a maimed ex-cop. Asrani, Jagdeep, Sachin, Jaya Bhaduri and Hema Malini made up the rest of the cast. Then there was Jalal Agha who had two frames in the film and had almost lost it. Ramesh Sippy was furious that he hadn’t turned up and wanted to play the role himself! Mac Mohan had to travel 27 times from Mumbai to Bangalore to complete filming for the role of Sambha but was in tears when he found the final edit had only one scene and three words of dialogue!
Master class in writing and dialogues
Sholay must rank at the top for its screenplay and dialogues. “Kitne aadmi the” or “Tera kya hoga kaaliya” and “Ye haath mujhe de de Gabbar” caught public imagination and is everyday speak even today. What’s interesting is that is that the film also held up a meaningful mirror to society and had a definitive point of view on many subjects. 1975 was the period post Emergency and the romance with independence from the British had ceased and the lack of opportunity had the common man seething. Just before Amitabh cemented his position as the Angry Young man with Zanjeer and later Deewar, Sholay provided the runway to upholding self-esteem and standing up for oneself even if it meant bending the law a little bit. When the jailor tells Thakur “Khota sikka toh dono taraf se khota hota hai, Thakur defends his decision to hire Jai and Veeru “Sikke aur insaan mein yahi farak hai”
There is a fine thread of humour that runs through the film. Veeru hides behind the idol in the temple and fools Basanti but Jai exposes him. Then there is the suicide scene with Veeru atop the water tank. His line “And buddhi going jail …and chakki peesing and peesing and peesing” was ridiculous and cheesy but soared to popularity. It is quite poignant that this scene leads into the one where Sachin is killed and sent back by Gabbar’s men.
Salim -Javed and their profound impact on Sholay
Salim and Javed were influenced by spaghetti westerns like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid”, “The Magnificent Seven” and of course Kurosawa’s magnum opus “The Seven Samurai” and the influence can be seen in the manner and scale Sholay was visualised. They were instrumental in ensuring that Amitabh secured the role of Jai instead of Shatrughan Sinha. Shot in 70 mm and with stunt experts flown in from London, the film set a new standard for many operating protocols as well. The coin toss act used by Jai and Veeru to decide almost anything was inspired from Gary Cooper’s film ‘Garden of Evil’ and became a signature style for the two protagonists. The song Yeh dosti has a motorbike and sidecar that became a rage … at the end of the song, the sidecar joins back with the bike on its own and this was compelted in one take thanks to Amitabh’s driving skills!
Jaya Bhaduri and Hema Malini were not content with their limited screen time. Ramesh convinced them that the roles would remain etched in people’s minds. Jaya’s transformation from the bubbly, carefree girl playing Holi with her friends to the forlorn and silent widow in white is poignant. When Jai comes back injured, Radha comes running down the steps and stops short on seeing Thakur, her father-in-law. The story of a woman widowed twice-over is told with the minimum number of shots. Similarly, Hema Malini as the motor mouth Basanti and her horse Dhanno leave an impact that’s profound.
Sholay was a large canvas film and boasted top notch cinematography and editing
The transitions from scene to scene were crafted intelligently. For example, “Holi kab hai…kab hai holi” leads on to the holi celebration in the village offset by the attack by Gabbar’s men. Similarly, “Loha garam hai, maar do hathoda” leads to the iconic “Mehbooba” song with Helen gyrating to Pancham’s raunchy voice and the stage is set for the protagonists to attack Gabbar in his own den.
Ramesh and his father G P Sippy were gambling big on Sholay and backed up the project with zero compromise and absolute perfection. Incidentally, B R Chopra had released a film in 1953 by the name of Shole and the Sippys wanted to differentiate clearly hence the spelling Sholay! The Sippy’s wanted a large canvas and everything they did was in keeping with this.
The production design by Ram Yedekar and cinematography by Dwarka Divecha and the latter’s partnership with Ramesh was legendary. Everything that was conceptualised for Sholay be it the rocky terrain in Ramanagaram outside of Bangalore, or the train sequence near Panvel, the 70 mm format and its shooting rigours the music by R D Burman or the trademark sounds for Gabbar made up with a contraption of pipes and water falling at varying levels made for a larger than life product. The team from Mumbai set up home at Ramanagaram and recruited quite a few locals. They built the entire set comprising the Thakur’s house, Gabbar’s den, the mosque and the village there. For this purpose, they even had to build a road back to the city and also take on petty theft as well as extortion from local goons.
The film took two long years and 450 shifts to complete and had its fair share of challenges. Sholay inspired many firsts as well. For the first time, the script writer credits were shown on the film posters. The 70 mm format was a first and required each scene to be shot twice. The stunt experts brought in new protocols that were safe and breath-taking. The film used real bullets and a stray bullet almost killed Amitabh during the shoot. Even the music label company Polydor was quick to introduce short versions of the dialogues of the film and these sold like hot cakes. The film was over three hours long and upset the show schedules at theatres. The censors came down heavily on the violence and gore and the Sippys had to edit a lot of sequences. The original version had a gory sequence of Gabbar killing Ahmed played by Sachin. The ending originally had Thakur killing Gabbar and then breaking down in tears. Salim-Javed had envisaged this as a message to show how all “visceral attractions of power and violence lead inevitably to agony and loss”. M S Shinde’s editing work is fabulous and was instrumental in bringing the length to the final three hours and eighteen minutes.
The film departed from existing trends – Gabbar was dressed in military fatigues and not the dhoti kurta like in films of that time. The two thieves, Jay and Veeru wore denim that contrasted well with the rocky barren terrain. More importantly, this gave the film a timeless quality that sustains even till this date.
Ramesh Sippy – the perfectionist
Ramesh Sippy was like a man possessed and sought for perfection on every frame. The shot where Radha turns off all the lamps even as Jay is playing the mouth organ was shot during the magic hour – twilight and the two sequences alone took twenty days!! The film was considered a flop on release as audiences walked out stunned and did not react. The Sippys eve considered editing the ending and letting Jai live – Zanjeer had released and Amitabh was now a big star. To his credit, Ramesh stayed with his conviction and did not alter anything. Amitabh’s last words in the film “Ye kahaani bhi adhuri reh gayi, kya socha tha aur…” gave the audiences something unfinished to reflect on and take away a part of Sholay forever.
Ironically, Sholay won only one award for that year and that too for editing. Yash Chopra’s Deewar swept the awards in 1975 grabbing Best Picture and Best Director. The film spurred several real-life romances including Amitabh and Jaya, Dharam and Hema, Salim and Helen and some others too. Sholay did have its fair share of goof-ups too, a notable one being the water tank in a village that did not have access to electricity since Radha used to light and turn down the lamps every evening. Last year, netizens went crazy over a set of memes around how Thakur’s hands had finally been discovered! Sholay continues to make waves and only seems to get stronger. In Mumbai’s Minerva theatre, Sholay ran for five long years and the bus stop in front became known as the Sholay bus stop. Buses offered a combo offer for the ride and the film ticket!
Sholay broke all box office records and stayed on top for nineteen long years till Hum Aapke Hain Kaun surpassed it in 1994. It remains the greatest story ever told, and the greatest film ever made. Even today, when I zap channels and come across that fantastic train sequence, I pause and wait for those dialogues that remind me of my childhood. And for the trivia hunters, Gabbar’s father was Hari Singh and his arms dealer was Hira.
