THE SHOLAY COLLAGE

Everybody knows Sholay. Released on August 15, 1975, Ramesh Sippy's Sholay remains an iconic and celebrated Hindi movie. "It's a part of India's heritage," says Hindi film director Dharmesh Dharshan.

(Check out the exclusive Sholay blog - SHOLAYISM)

From left: Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan pose between shots. 

As legend goes, after listening to the script, Amitabh wanted to play Gabbar Singh and Dharmendra wanted Sanjeev's role; writers Salim-Javed had a hard time convincing them to play their assigned parts. Dharmendra denied any such desire on his part in a 2010 NDTV interview.

For the first time, the music company Polydor sold dialogue audio cassettes of a movie in millions as the film gained cult status. Gabbar's dialogues are now part of Indian culture. Gabbar's pronouncements can be heard in jokes, weddings and social gatherings. Ad makers have wrung the Sholay lemon dry, yet the references keep coming. Children to elderly people will oblige you with their renditions. Satire, books, headlines, daily talk, all have allusions to Sholay's dialogues.

A hand painted poster of the film. Hand painted posters have long been replaced by glossy computer made images since.

An excerpt from a Sholay-based video game

The famous motorcycle sequence from the buddy song - Yeh Dosti...

Gabbar looms at a distance, a shot inspired from Sergio Leone's Clint Eastwood westerns of the 1960's.

Asrani does an impressive Indian take on Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator

"KAB HAI HOLI? KAB?!"
thunders Gabbar as he plans to catch the frolicking Ramgadhians unaware on Holi - the festival of colours.

Viju Khote (left) in his famous brief role as Kaalia. Nafrati, the horse he was riding was very temperamental. Kote was relieved when Kaalia is finally shot dead by Gabbar.

The scene of Jai returning Radha the locker keys was the first scene shot for the movie...  

Veeru's inebriated suicide threat scene is the last of the comic scenes in the film, before guns start sounding all around.

Amjad and Hema did this scene over several retakes, until Hema's arm was sore with bruises.

In the original Sholay, Thakur Baldev Singh(Sanjeev Kumar) uses his nail-sole shoes to cut off Gabbar's hands. Two equals, they fight until Gabbar is killed, trampled like a snake under Thakur's feet. Thakur breaks down with the sudden loss of purpose in his life and from relief. The censors did not want this "anti- establishment" ending during the time of emergency and stalled the film's release. Ramesh Sippy had to re-shoot an alternate ending with the police arriving from nowhere, which we see today. The first ending exists in rare bootleg video cassettes and CD's and those who have seen it say, Sholay was better as it was first shot.

The iconic status of the film lives on with T-shirts and graphically designed posters, among other memorabilia. Ram Gopal Varma may have tried hard in the remake, but SHOLAY (1975) is forever. 



Movie Review: PAA: Amitabh ki jai ho!

In his second film as director, R Balki shows his knack for comic lines and situations and again, as in his directorial debut Cheeni Kum, a weakness for the emotionally-heavy moments. 

Paa meanders through its story of a child suffering from a fatal disease - Progeria, and the bringing together of his parents - the father depicted sketchily and unconvincingly as a young upright politician, and the mother - a gynecologist.

In all its roughness and rawness, Paa's strength is Amitabh Bachchan - in a daring role of a 13 year-old child, complete with a squeaky voice, effective make up, and ready wit, Bachchan probably delivers  the best performance in his career and is the reason you should catch the film in a theatre near you. Art is ageless, they say...

Movie Review: Body of Lies: An unpretentious entertainer

Directed by Ridley Scott
Main Cast: Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Strong

Contemporary and pacy from the first to the last frame, Body of Lies is a speedy entertainer. We are drawn in to the games of deceit, lies, power, terrorists and the CIA (Central Investigative Agency) (In short, America saving the world).

DiCaprio plays a CIA agent riding danger in the streets of Iraq and Jordan, while Crowe plays his senior, adroitly controlling operations through his cell phone in America. As with his previous film American Gangster, Scott manages to hold our attention with his apt treatment and by extracting great performances from Dicaprio and Crowe - now a Scott regular. Its not a classic, but certainly not boring.

Last Word
Why did Amitabh Bachchan reject such a meaty role of Honey? Insecurity?