Synopsis:
While many countries may have had hard decisions to make to pick out a single film of the century at the close of the last millennium, Indian cinema goers had an easy pick as there was only one real contender for the film of the 20th century; Sholay. The importance and significant of Sholay cannot be understated as it's the one movie that has symbolised the India cinema for the last 30 + years. It's the most watched Indian film ever and the one most have seen and remember.
Sholay has a compelling story that is unforgettable and timeless. Akin to the Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) the plot revolves around a tormented and impoverished village that is the persistent victim of an invading gang of bandits that leach and dictate the villagers. Enter Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) once a brave Police Officer and now retired to the village that is under regular attacks from the bandits. He hires two small time convicts Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jaidev (Amitabh Bachchan) not to protect the village but to capture the leader of the bandits, Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). The deal being that Thakur wants Gabbar Singh alive at any cost. So the story unfolds in an intriguing series of chapters that sees Veeru and Jaidev take up Thakurs offer and come to the village to capture the mighty figure of Gabbar Singh - if only things were that simple! What follows in the three-hour epic is a gripping, dramatic, thrilling and ultimately tragic narrative of the two protagonists in a fight to capture Gabbar Singh and the revelations on why Thakur wants the bad guy so severely. The execution of the film is in brilliant style and manner that has not been replicated by any other film to date in India.
Directed by Ramesh Sippy, Sholay is one of the most celebrated and highly praised of all Indian films - its is a film that would end up in the 'best all time top tens' of most Indian film critics. Sholay has had the record of being the longest running film in Indian cinematic history, which ran for 265 weeks at the cinema only recently been surpassed by the popular romantic film Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995 - Shahrukh Khan and Kajol). Two of the factors that make Sholay such a memorable and loved film are the characters and powerful dialogues written by know legendary Indian writers Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan - a combo so famous for their joint work that they are solely credited as Javed-Salim. The characterisation of the cast in Sholay have become icons in Indian cinema - every character from Veeru and Jaidev to the heroines Basanti and Radha to the notorious villain Gabbar Singh are remembered and references in numerous films. Amjad Khan, who portrayed Gabbar Singh, is his first major role in a movie became the model villain in several films for the next decade that were to made after Sholay albeit never achieving the same success and recognition as in Sholay. Amjad Khan was also given most of the legendary lines in the film too that he delivered with extreme style and fineness that took portrayals of villains to new heights. The films heroes and heroines also became legends - and in the processes tied the knot to each other! Amitabh Bachchan gave a staggering performance that many new generation actors aspired to - Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan have said on numerous occasions that it was the performance of Amitabh in Sholay that inspired them to go into movies. Dharmendra being one the lead characters in Sholay carried the film with commendable style. The words classic and legends are created for a movie like Sholay - simply not to be missed.
Technically the film is nothing short of exceptional and in a class of its own. The film is brilliantly choreographed capturing some of the most exhilarating action sequences in Indian cinema. Lengthy camera pan shots over rocky mountain heights and stark landscapes are brilliantly done - something director Brian De Palma would be very proud of. Sholay was one of the first Indian films that made use of several cinematic innovations at the time such as 70mm format and multi track stereophonic sound. Originally Sholay was filmed at a 4:3 aspect ratio but was released for the cinema in a matted 2.35:1 aspect ratio on 70mm film format. Also the film was shot with two different endings. Due to certain pressures from Indian film censors and media the director's cut of the film remained behind closed doors for many years until it re-surfaced as an extended version. This version was re-cut by Ramesh Sippy and showed the original intended ending - which would act as a major spoiler for those not seen Sholay before, if I revealed it here! So hence two versions of Sholay exist; the original theatrical version, which runs for 188 minutes and the extended director's cut which is 204 minutes long. And both are available on DVD.
The first release of Sholay on DVD was an effort by DEI/Eros, which used the wide screen 70mm version of the film. It was later released under the Eros/B4U tag, which was the director's version of the film but also presented it as originally shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio.
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