INTRODUCTION:
Sholay is one of the greatest films ever made in the history of Indian cinema. Though the movie was released in 1975, every part of the film seems to be still refreshing and cherishing. I have seen Sholay more than 10 times and each time it provided new feelings and enjoyment. It is one of the best films for any Indian who has ever watched it. I am not exaggerating, but trying to explain its mark in the Indian film industry. Let's explore its different sections.
START CAST:
Sholay was directed by Ramesh Sippy. The main role is played by Amitabh Bachchan (Jai), Jaya Bachchan (Radha), Dharmendra (Veeru), Hema Malini (Basanti) and Sanjeev Kumar (Thakur). Amjad Khan plays a negative role as Gabbar Singh.
SIGNIFICANT PART:
Sholay was brilliant because of best dialogues and script written by Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar. R.D. Burman's good music and excellent performance delivered by Amjad Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Sanjeev Kumar raised the film to new heights. Dialogs of Sholay were so popular that dialogue audio cassettes were released.
PLOT:
Basically it's a story of friendship and revenge. Jai (Amitabh) and Veeru (Dharmendra) are two friends who live together. They carry out regular small thefts and have to go jail because these activities. Police are so bored of these two that they have kept a small amount as prize to catch them if they do any more theft. Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar) is a police officer and lives in a village, Ramgarh, with his joint family. His family includes two sons and daughter-in-laws, a sister and a child from an elder son. In one of the incident, Thakur travels in goods trains along with Jai and Veeru. This was a part of temporarily shifting Jai and Veeru to another jail. Suddenly some dacoits (bandits) attack the train and try to take control of it. Thakur frees Jai and Veeru. With their help, Thakur successfully defeats the dacoits but lost consciousness due to a bullet injury. There is an interesting part in the case of Jai who keeps a coin with both of its side (head and tail) the same. He decides most important decisions by tossing the coin. Veeru is not aware of coin secret. Jai decides to take Thakur to hospital at that moment. That incident exposes the sincerity, deep thinking and kindness of Jai.
But somehow, the destiny of these three characters was to meet. As a police officer, Thakur once caught deadly dacoit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). Gabbar Singh was sentenced to life time imprisonment. But Gabbar Singh was confident that he will not be in jail permanently and he threatened Thakur that he come again and kill his entire family. After few days Gabbar Singh fled from the jail and went to Thakur's village, Ramgarh and killed his entire family except his younger daughter-in-law, Radha (Jaya Bachchan). She had gone to temple at that time hence she escaped. This massacre impacted Thakur so much that he directly went to Gabbar Singh's den without any support. But Thakur was caught and Gabbar Singh brutally cut his both hands by two swords.
To take revenge from Gabbar Singh, Thakur thought to hire people to do his job. He recollected the bravely of Jai and Veeru. Thakur made the search of Jai and Veeru and hired them to bring Gabbar Singh alive. At that time there was prize of Rs. 50,000 in the name of Gabbar Singh. Thakur gave Rs. 20000 to Jai and Veeru and asked them to keep the prize money also once they catch Gabbar Singh. Slowly and gradually Jai and Veeru understand the past of Thakur and take an oath to catch Gabbar Singh. During this period Jai comes across Radha and Veeru starts to love Basanti (Hema Malini). There are few action-packed scenes where Gabbar Singh's people come and try to dictate to the Ramgarh villagers. But Jai and Veeru override them and defeat them so they go back empty handed.
CLIMAX:
The climax is excellent in case of Sholay. The final scenes are beautifully shot and it nicely covers action, emotion and firing dialogues. Veeru and Basanti are caught by Gabbar Singh. In order to free them, Jai comes and manages to free them, but they can't easily escape Gabbar Singh hilly area. Meanwhile Jai gets injured by some bullets and he asks Veeru to take Basanti and leave that place. Meanwhile, he will manage alone. This he again decides by tossing up the coin. When Veeru come back, he finds his friend Jai seriously injured. He is not able to save Jai. Veeru becomes angry and kill Gabbar Singh's army and catches Gabbar Singh. Thakur punishes Gabbar Singh by crushing his handles under his shoes full of metallic nails. The end scene is very sensitive and emotional in which Veeru thinks of Jai.