There are films that, having watched just once, you become a prisoner of them forever. They give such strong feelings that they continue to live in you for whole episodes, as if you yourself were a direct participant in them or watched them from a close distance. Before the era of video and computer games, such films could be endlessly played and replayed in the yard with friends. These include the action movie “Sholay”, which has become one of the main legends of Bollywood, which means “coals” in Hindi. In the world box office, he received the name “Flames of the Sun”, and in the Soviet Union in the late seventies he was renamed to the more enticing “Sholay and the Law”.
The shooting of this more than three-hour tape, which sent viewers back to the early 1950s, by the time of the real basis of the plot, took almost two years, which by cinematic standards is a very long time. Not every director can afford to re-shoot scenes so meticulously, achieving the desired result. But the 26-year-old (at the beginning of filming in October 1973) Ramesh Sippy could afford it, because his father was the producer of the tape. And behind the shoulders of this young director was already a super-successful “Zita and Gita”. By the way, most of the main actors migrated from this tape to “Sholay”.
Viru and Jai repel the attack of Gabbar's henchmen on the village
The style of the early Ramesh Sippy is characterized by a genre mix, which is especially vividly represented in the film we recall. “The Sholay of the” combines both a picaresque comedy, and a high tragedy, and the brutalism of criminal militants, but the genre that binds the action is a western in its purest form. There is a noble sheriff (policeman Thakur) and a villain, terrifying the surrounding residents Gabbar Singh (a real character from the police chronicles of the fifties) and two friends, filigree wielding both weapons and fists, standing up for the offended.
However, in the beginning of the film, Ravi and Jai (whose screen avatars are the brightest Bollywood stars Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan) are shown as characters on the other side of the law. But in a moment of danger, they help the Thakur escorting them to repel an attack on a train of bandits on horseback. And they take a seriously injured policeman to the hospital, despite the prospect of immediately going to jail. However, they soon find themselves there. This prison chapter of the film is an amazing miniature in the spirit of Charlie Chaplin’s comedies. And the new head of the prison appearing in the frame is like two drops of water similar to Chaplin’s character from The Great Dictator. Govardan Asrani, who played this little prison boss with a short mustache, turns this episode into a masterpiece, matching the original source.
Hemma Malini and Dharmendra
Police officer Thakur, who once appreciated their courage and loyalty, offers to help Ravi and Jay get free, offers to help him punish the villain Gabbar Singh. The heroes accept this offer, because they are promised a very substantial reward. Once in the village, where the big house of the retired police inspector is located, both friends find their vocation in protecting the locals. Ramesh Sippy and the duo of screenwriters Salim and Javid (who have already created Zita and Gita together) directly refer viewers to Akir Kurosawa‘s Seven Samurai. Here the heroes also find their lovers. Hema Malini in the role of the local beauty Basanti seems to continue the line of the mischievous Gita from the previous film, where she played both twins separated in infancy. By the way, Viru, who so stubbornly sought the hand of the beautiful charioteer, inherits his predecessor (played by the same actor) from “Zita and Gita” in this, too. In off-screen life, Dharmendra and Hema Malini were able to officially marry only in 1980. But Jaya Bhaduri, who played the role of the young widow Radha in the film “Sholay” and declared his love to her through the enchanting harmonica melodies, Amitabh Bachchan, were already married by the time of filming.
Hemma Malini as Basanti
The harmonica mentioned above immediately evokes the image of Charles Bronson from Once upon a Time in the Wild West. And in the course of the action we see a direct roll call with the most tragic episode of the great Western by Sergio Leone. What happens to Thakur’s family condemns him to become an avenger and find those who will help him in this. The bitterness of loss is experienced not only by Thakur, but also by the village sage imam Sahab. The scene where the blind elder, surrounded by a silent crowd, guesses with a cane in the body of his young son (brutally murdered by Gabbar’s thugs), lying on the ground, cannot but respond with sadness in the hearts of the audience. It is then that the semantic culmination of the screen story takes place. Reading out Gabbar’s ultimatum received from the young man’s body (to give him two visiting brave souls), one of the villagers offers to capitulate, thus saving the lives of his children and relatives. In response to such a general mood of submission, Thakur (one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema, Sanjeev Kumar, lived his role on the screen) delivers a vivid speech, phrases from which can now be called winged:
“In this world, justice is very expensive and often the price for it is life.”
And parrying the remark that the mind tells the cruel bandit to surrender, Thakur develops the idea:
“Bowing your head to a villain is more like cowardice than reason. Nothing will make me bow my head. As long as I’m alive, I want to wear it with pride. I will fight no matter what it takes.”
But the key to overcoming the almost victorious cowardice of the villagers is the appeal to them of the lost son, Imam Sahib:
“Do you know what the biggest burden in the world is? The coffin with the body of the son on the shoulders of the father. There is nothing heavier than such a load. I, an old man, am carrying it, and you are ready to give up because of one misfortune. Brothers, it is better to die with honor than to live with shame.”
Thakur's gaze filled with hatred and desire for revenge
Almost 50 million viewers watched “Sholay and the Law” at the Soviet box office, and in the pantheon of Indian cinema, this curry-western (as the Indian variation of the originally American genre is often called), initially opposed by critics and seemingly doomed to audience failure, became one of the highest-grossing and still tops the list the main masterpieces of Indian cinema. Strangely, the Gabbar, a symbol of pure evil (akin to Darth Vader), also enjoyed audience success, which was largely due to the outstanding performance of Amjad Khan. The success components should also include the camerawork of Dwark Divech and, of course, the memorable soundtrack created by Rahul Burman (and the legendary Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey and “nightingale of India” Lata Mangeshkar became the voice-over song voices of the heroes).
PS In the director’s version of the film, Thakur’s revenge was carried out to the end, but due to rolling censorship, the director had to finish the episode with the formal triumph of the law.
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