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Sholay Movie Review

Sholay is a 1975 Indian action-adventure western film directed by Ramesh Sippy and starring Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan. It’s a stupendous epic.

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“What is your name, Basanti?“

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Jai and Veeru, two ex-convicts are hired by a retired policeman, to help him nab Gabbar Singh, a notorious dacoit, who has spread havoc in the village of Ramgarh. This movie came out back in 1975 and it both flopped and received bad reviews, but nowadays it is renowned both in India and around the world as one of the country’s finest movies and for many great reasons.

This film basically started the modern Bollywood movement as it created all these elements that are reminiscent of Bollywood, in particular the diversity of genres and tones all put into one product. What you get here is around four or five different movies, sometimes even wildly different, put into one giant epic that is over three hours long, and surprisingly most of it really works.

The core of the film is this crime story about two ex-criminals trying to catch and kill a notorious bandit. The rural setting, the epic tone to the film and the overall bandit storyline made it feel very similar to American westerns, but naturally in an Indian setting with a more eastern approach at storytelling. This mixture worked splendidly, leading to the film’s universal appeal.

The villain was played gloriously by Amjad Khan in one truly unhinged, incredible performance. I loved Gabbar Singh. He is so cartoony, but in the best way possible as he is also intimidating and powerful. Seeing his ultimate demise was so fulfilling due to the threat that he imposed throughout the film’s runtime.

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The two protagonists are also incredible. This movie is surprisingly well developed in each of its characters, of which there are a lot. The runtime helped, but still a lot of care went into each personality and that needs to be commended. The central friendship is the best representation of the importance of homosocial bonding. Their dynamic is infectiously fun and endearing. The female supporting characters are also very strong and each actor in the cast was wonderful.

But Sholay isn’t just a western. It’s so much more than that. It has a strong action-adventure angle in its DNA for sure, but I would also definitely classify it as a musical given that it features quite a lot of musical numbers interspersed throughout. And I would actually say that the songs are the highlight of the feature.

The best song is the first one – Yeh Dosti. Playing into the strong male friendship at its core, following the two driving through the village and singing joyously reminded me of the Disney songs in the best way possible. This moment was incredible. Another highlight is the song where the women sing and throw red paint all around. There are so many musical numbers that are highly cinematic and absolute scene-stealers.

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The whole of Sholay is pure cinema of yesteryear, now long gone unfortunately. Surely, the editing and pacing left lot to be desired and some of the parts in the second act weren’t as strong. Whenever you have such a long movie, you are bound to have weaker characters and inferior sections, but thankfully this one mostly delivered. The cinematography is superb, the visuals are colorful and the score is fantastic as was the production design. The only thing lacking was a bit more romance and emotion put into the plot.