Skip to main content

The Forever Burning Flame of Sholay


Happy Independence Day! Jaideep Sen on one of the most iconic films that India has ever made....


Today as India celebrates its 71st Independence Day, it also marks the 43rd birthday of the Greatest Gift India received on this date -- the "Greatest Star-cast Ever Assembled, The Greatest Story Ever Told": Sholay. 

So strong is the impact of this Film on the Indian psyche that celebrated filmmaker Shekhar Kapur who directed the last of the Salim-Javed collaborated Mr. India has gone on record to say that Sholay  is the most defining film in Indian cinema and that Indian cinema can be divided between Sholay A.D and Sholay B.C


The kind of passion and commitment that Salim Saab and Javed Saab invested into this epic can be gauged from the fact that not only have the characters of the film got etched in our memory but even a lifeless coin - with two heads - has become a part of our lives. Salim Saab & Javed Saab gave the inanimate object an independent character. It was used so brilliantly to underline Jai's (played with such finesse by Amitabh Bachchan) inherent goodness because whenever it was the 'right' thing that needed to be done at a certain point in the story, he would call 'heads'.

For me the most life changing dialogue in Sholay is Imaam Saab’s “Baap ke kandhe par bete ka janaza” and “Aaj puchoonga khuda se ki mujhe do chaar bete aur kyun nahin diye is gaon par shaheed hone ke liye” played with such warmth and complete dignity by A.K Hangal Ji. 


How well the Brilliant Duo of Salim Saab and Javed Saab juxtaposed a Father’s sorrow and pride and used it as a tool to instill courage into the shaken villagers to take on the evil Gabbar Singh.

Which brings me to Gabbar Singh,undoubtedly and undisputedly the most fascinating and magnetic character ever penned in Indian cinema. When I recently saw that part of the film again -- and  by the way I see some part of this movement called Sholay almost every day of my life -- where Gabbar is gazing at a captive Basanti in his den and says, “Yeh Ramgarh wale apni betiyon ko kaun chakki ka pisa aata khilate hain re” I was floored by the complete unapologetic demeanour of the character in objectifying a woman with such flamboyance.
 
Having interacted closely with Salim Saab in recent times I have realised that this flamboyance and unapologetic confidence exists in his own personality which reflects in his work. Work, that has given Indian Cinema its identity. Work, that shall always stand the tallest in the form of the The Forever Burning Flame of Sholay.

Jaideep Sen is a filmmaker and a connoisseur of the art of storytelling. 

Read his previous posts in this Series here: 

#1 Salaam, Salim Saab   
#2 Silence that Speaks
#3 The Invaluable Value of the Pen
#4 The Guru of Screenwriting

 




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Facing my fear - one Pitch at a time

Pitching makes me freeze up. In fact, the very thought of it makes me wanna run away.  For a screenwriter that's simply bad news. Because no matter what, if you want to get your stories out of your computer and hit the big screens, then you need to get comfortable with selling your story to potential producers and studios. And the first step in that journey is pitching.  My fear of pitching has prodded me to find different ways of overcoming the hurdle. So, for a few years I tried to work with agents in the hope that they would read my book and be able to handle the job of pitching. But soon I realized that agents were not into reading. So, I was just another name in their long list of clients. How that helps them grow their business is a different story, and one that I will perhaps share at a later point when I get around to solving that mystery! But the turning point (life does imitate screenplays!) came when I was called to pitch my book to a prominent OTT channel. This was an o
1 comment
Read more

Basu Chatterji's "Balcony Class" Films

Basu Chatterji's Rajnigandha was like a breath of fresh air in the 1970s film universe of Bombay. At a time when the Angry Young Man was beginning to dominate celluloid screens, Amol Palekar was as un-hero-like as you could get. He was the Common Man who traveled in buses, did not have hero-like mannerisms and did not breathe fire and brimstone at his opponents. Basu Chatterji's Middle of the Road Cinema burst on to the scene and surprised the movie-going audience with its everyday situations and storylines that had an undercurrent of humour. Chatterji catered to an audience that he liked to call the "Balcony Class".  Anirudha Bhattacharjee, author of Basu Chatterji and Middle-of-the-Road Cinema writes an entertaining and heartwarming account of the life and work of Basu Chatterji, one of the most under-rated directors of Indian cinema. Recall of Chatterji's brand of feel-good, slice-of-life movies is perhaps highest for his Rajnigandha, Chotisi Baat, Baaton Baa
4 comments
Read more

'Pure Evil' has been my biggest and most complex project - Author Balaji Vittal

Love them or hate them, you simply can't ignore them. That cliche is perhaps most apt when it comes to the bad men of Bollywood. In fact, some of the most memorable lines of dialogue have been mouthed not by the heroes but by the villains of Hindi cinema. So it is only fitting that these shining stars of the dark world (after all, antagonists are the protagonists of their own stories!) deserve to be spotlighted. Balaji Vittal , the author of Pure Evil: the Bad Men of Bollywood undertakes this onerous task of highlighting the world of these evil characters and how they have come to occupy a special place in the hearts and minds of movie goers.  I spoke to Mr. Balaji Vittal, a National Award winning and MAMI Award winning author of Bollywood books, a columnist for News18, Outlook India, The New Indian Express , a Bollywood commentator and a public speaker, about his journey of venturing into the world of Pure Evil .   Here are some excerpts:   Your book "Pure Evil: the Bad Men
Post a Comment
Read more