Sholay - Movie Review
Published: September 14, 2011
Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan
Sholay is one of the most beloved Bollywood films ever and among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time. It was the first “Curry Western"—the Indian version of the Spaghetti Western.
Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) are best friends and partners in crime. They're petty thieves, accomplished at gunslinging and fisticuffs, but good-natured, lovable rogues. It's their free-spirited nature, not wickedness, that makes them what they are.
They've never been committed to anyone—except each other—or tied down to any place—that is, until a former police chief, Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar), hires them to apprehend a bandit, Gabbar (Amjad Khan), who has been terrorizing Thakur's village. The reason Thakur can't do it himself is revealed later.
Bon vivant Veeru and the cool, collected Jai think about stealing the reward money and taking off, but they quickly come to care about the villagers and the injustice done to them. In particular, Veeru takes a strong liking to a bubbly horse-cart driver, Basanti (Hema Malini), and Jai is deeply intrigued by Thakur's noble, widowed daughter-in-law, Radha (Jaya Bhaduri). Gabbar is consummate evil and he spreads tragedy like a virus. He's a formidable foe for Veeru and Jai, who have met their match for the first time, and the twosome can't resist trying to slay this awful dragon.
Because of government censors, the theatrical release had a different ending than the director's cut, which is the one on most DVDs.
The romantic pairs in the film were involved in real life. Malini and the married Dharmendra fell in love during the filming—they married five years later. Bachchan married Bhaduri four months before filming began in 1973 (it took two and a half years to make), and she was pregnant with their first child (daughter Shweta Bachchan) during shooting.
At the time, Bhaduri was a more famous actor than her husband—they had appeared in a few films together prior to Sholay, which helped his then-floundering career take off. Namely, she co-starred with him in Zanjeer (1973)—when no other actresses would—and the hit film established his legendary film persona as an "angry young man." Sholay and another of his films that year, the groundbreaking Deewaar, sent Bachchan skyrocketing into superstardom.
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