SHOLAY
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: This is the longest running and
most profitable Hindi film of all time.
Strongly influenced by THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN,
albeit with two heroes instead of seven, it is
basically a Western made and set in 1975 with
locales in then current India. Some of the
Hindi Film conventions will chafe American
viewers, but overall it is quite enjoyable.
Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to +4) Note:
This review is written from the point of view of
an American for other Americans. The viewer's
experience may vary. I find that Indians can be
extremely fond of this film and will probably
like it considerably more than I did.
When the film SHOLAY was released in 1975 it at first appeared not to attract much of an audience in India. Word of mouth grew, however, until it was the highest grossing and most profitable Hindi film ever made. It had a theatrical run of over seven years in Bombay and five years in Delhi. Today there are Indians who will unabashedly call it one of the finest films ever made. While the film takes place in its present, it is basically a reframing of SEVEN SAMURAI and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, retold with two heroes instead of seven. Directed by Ramesh Sippy who picked up many of the conventions of American Westerns and especially form the Italian Westerns of Sergio Leone. Madhya Pradesh in Central India and a few other areas in India are perhaps the only places in the world where there are still conditions so similar to the American West. There, at least according to my informant, gangs of dacoits still ride horses in rocky terrain and live relatively free of the law enforcement. It is a strange mix of times to see bandits on horses and people in contemporary dress on modern motorcycles. I am informed that the view of village life in India is very accurate. SHOLAY, whose name means "sparks of fire," follows the conventions of Indian neighborhood films. That means it has several songs in production numbers, it has generous doses of comedy. And the film is in the range of 190 minutes long.
Thakur Baldev Singh (played by Sanjeev Kumar) has a problem. As a Thakur--sort of the equivalent of what in England was a squire--he is responsible to protect his village from the ravages of a the gang of the bandit named Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). To do this he wishes to enlist the aid of two of the worst thieves in the country, Veeru (Dharmendru) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan). The Thakur has dealt with them before when he was not the police force and he knows them to be decent men and good fighters who are his best chance to defeat Gabbar Singh. He hires them to capture Gabbar alive.
In flashbacks we see that the Thakur previously was to bring the two to prison via train. When the train was attacked by bandits the two escaped from his chains, fought off the bandits, and then turned themselves into the authorities rather than let the policeman die of his wounds.
As is frequently the case is Westerns the most memorable character is the villain. Think of Calvera in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN or Hannibal Lector in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. In India Gabbar Singh has taken on a life of his own. Indian children memorize his lines. He is has become one of the most popular screen villains of all time for reasons that must be only partially clear to outsiders. He certainly has personality, though perhaps not all of it transcends the language barrier.
Making this a Hindi film are the usual standard touches. In the course of the three-hour-plus film there are five production number songs. An early one is a colorful number set during the Holi holiday. At this holiday Indians throw large volumes of brightly- colored powders into the air and at each other, which certainly is visually colorful. Another production number toward the end of the film is a bit sadistic and makes the audience involuntarily wince. Music is by R. D. Burman, but its quality is a little hard to measure by Western standards. The music and the comedy tend to pad out what in the West we would make into a more focused and intense film. Some of the comedy is rather bizarre including a scene in prison in which the warden has chosen one of the most hated personalities of this century on whom to model his looks and actions.
A number of pieces of the style are reminiscent of Sergio Leone films. Some scenes are drawn out for the greatest amount of drama, but will be done almost silently with one irrelevant sound dominating (e.g. the repetitive squeaking of a swing). In one scene several people are shot in a sort of massacre, but rather than showing the carnage, each time the action stops in a freeze-frame for a second or two. When the father of the house comes to see the bodies, each is covered in a sheet, but as he stands looking the wind comes and one at a time blows the sheet away leaving a body. In another scene a man is aiming a gun at a defenseless boy. There is a quick jump to a train venting steam with the same explosive sound. These are very evocative scenes and these touches give parts of the film a definite Italian Western feel. That part of India has landscapes much like the American West anyway. It is odd to find such good work in the same film that has some of the silly comic musical numbers that this film has. There some of the comic editing features under-cranked cameras and touches one would more associate with "The Monkees."
The non-Indian wishing to try Indian neighborhood entertainment films could do worse than to begin sampling with SHOLAY. Though it may seem uneven, like the British "curate's egg," parts of it are excellent. I rate it 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. The film is now available on DVD. (Thanks to Lax Madapati for showing me and giving me extensive background information on this film.)
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 2000 Mark R. Leeper
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