The deceptively simple storyline begins with former police officer Thakur Baldev Singh, who has lost his family and been disabled by a ruthless bandit named Gabbar Singh. Thakur hires Veeru and Jaidev, two small time crooks he once jailed but respects for their admirable sense of honor, to protect his village and apprehend Gabbar. While in the village, Veeru falls for a local girl, Basanti, and Jaidev takes an interest in Thakur's widowed daughter-in-law, Radha. Of course Gabbar Singh proves a formidable foe to Thakur's new security team and there's plenty of shootouts and violent confrontations before the credits role. Among the more memorable scenes are Gabbar playing his own brand of Russian Roulette with his posse, Veeru and Jaidev's musical motorcycle romp and a revealing flashback sequence that explains Thakur's current physical condition.
One reason Sholay became such a big cult success in India was due to its cast of big-name Bollywood stars, clearly delineated characters and the hip, rapid-fire dialogue. In fact, lines from Sholay are still being quoted today by fans in India. In addition, the film's musical score was a huge success and so were recordings of the dialogue, which were also sold and became quite popular. Probably the most quoted dialogue belonged to villain Gabbar Singh, who has been called "a cross between a Mexican bandit and a ruthless psychopath;" Gabbar is truly a character in the modern Western style, one that lacks any sense of humanity. Interestingly enough, Amjad Khan, who plays Gabbar, was cast in the part at the last minute. Also, on the same day he officially signed for the role, his wife gave birth to their son. It was obviously a good omen for the fledgling actor's career. Eventually Amjad went on to appear in more than 50 films after Sholay and directed two more in the late 80's, Chor Police (1983) and Amir Aadmi Gareeb Aadmi (1985).
Among the bigger names in Sholay are Dharmendra, who tackles the role of the hired gunman Veeru, Hema Malini as the village girl Basanti (Dharmendra's frequent female lead in other movies), and Sanjeev Kumar as Thakur. And the behind-the-scenes story with these three actors is just as interesting as anything on screen in Sholay. Apparently both Dharmendra and Sanjeev Kumar were in love with Hema Malini. Kumar went so far as to propose to the actress before filming began. The off screen triangle came to directly impact the movie's production at one point. Dharmendra originally wanted to play the villain role of Gabbar. The director, however, told him that if he played Gabbar, Sanjeev Kumar would play Veeru, and get to do all the love scenes with Hema. Dharmendra quickly changed his mind and the decision changed the course of both actors' lives. Hema and Dharmendra were later married. And despite the fact that the union flaunted convention (with Hema becoming Dharmendra's second wife and having his children), neither star lost any popularity. They went on to make over twenty films together - and produced next generation Bollywood actress Esha Deol.
Producer: G. P. Sippy
Director: Ramesh Sippy
Screenplay: Javed Akhtar, Salim Khan
Cinematography: Dwarka Divecha
Film Editing: M.S. Shinde
Art Direction: Ram Yedekar
Music: Rahul Dev Burman
Cast: Dharmendra (Veeru), Amitabh Bachchan (Jai), Sanjeev Kumar (Thakur Baldev Singh), Amjad Khan (Gabbar Singh), Hema Malini (Basanti), Jaya Bhaduri (Radha).
C-163m. Letterboxed.
by Stephanie Thames
