nothing special about SHOLAY

I know this will sound blasphemous to the film buffs considering ‘Sholay ’ enjoys cult status among the list of memorable hindi movies. But for the life of me I have never been able to get what all this fuss is about. What is so remarkable about a movie, a kind of curry western the likes of which Hollywood has been producing for ages. Some experts also talk about how ‘Sholay’ redefined the technique of film making in India which was not great in any case up until the arrival of this movie on the scene with its sweeping camera work , good sound track and sharp editing combined with some good melodramatic acting. But that is about it.

When it comes to the actual plotting and script, it did not break any new ground, it was still a story based on vigilante justice in a back of the beyond kind of village where the writ of the law did not run, where bumbling cops are in awe of a comically menacing bandit, where a moronic jailor does not know how to mind his prisoners and two out of luck small time criminals see a shot at redemption by helping a victim of the terror unleashed by the bandit, to bring him to justice wild west style.

It also perpetuates some of the worst stereotype about the issue of gender and what it means to be a widow in a feudal society when we see the character played by Jaya Bhaduri where she is widowed at a young age falling victim at the hands of Gabbar Singh but can’t give voice even once to her feelings for the new arrival of a compassionate man in her village who also has a feeling for her and both are forced to suffer in silence right till the very end when the man dies without having ever spoken to each other. The underlying implication being that it is just not right for an Indian woman to have any tender feeling for another man once your husband is no more. I am willing to concede that ‘Sholay’ is a watchable and entertaining cinema but it is far from the kind of film that it is made out to be.