MUBI

Sholay is the most ambitious and prestigious Bollywood film ever made. Clocking in at over three and a half hours, this Indian epic is absolutely genre-defying, as it contains action, comedy, romance, musical numbers, thrills and more, all set to the conventions of a Hollywood western.

At heart it is a tale hellbent on revenge. A police officer named Thakur hires two criminals to hunt down and capture Gabber Singh, a notorious bandit. Our two anti-heroes converge at a village that Gabber is terrorizing, befriend the locals, and a slew of musical cues ensue.

Sholay is the highest grossing Indian film of all time and was in theater circulation for five years. The one aspect that stands out the most is its western approach. Much of the film takes place in barren cliffs and dust flies high. This is a pretty violent film; when people get shot up we see bloodstains that would make Sergio Leone smile. There is a scene where an entire family is slaughtered, just like in Once Upon a Time in the West. As a matter of fact, there is a specific scene in this family slaying where a little boy is killed. Gabbar aims his rifle at the child and pulls the trigger, but instead of seeing the child drop and the roaring sound of the rifle the shot cuts to a medium shot of a train roaring away, which, in this case, sounds frighteningly similar to that of a rifle. I feel that this cut would make Sam Peckinpah happy (another influence one can see on this film).

The list of influence doesn’t stop there. After an extravagant gunfight in the village, Thakur gives the villagers a huge speech, trying to rally up people to help protect their home. While watching this, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai instantly popped into my mind. I find this slightly ironic, since they have a film that influenced the genre that Sholay is influenced by. Small world.

A lot is packed into this epic. We have political satire hidden throughout the films, such as the Hitler-esque prison warden, which is taking a malicious jab at British imperialism. The lead bandit, Gabber Singh, bares a striking resemblance to that of Fidel Castro. Yet at the same time the film is so light-hearted that it may just be seen as a joke. Here is where the charm of the film lays. The two anti-heroes are best of friends that they would even say that they love each other. We see them caress each other during one musical number while riding a motorcycle, but we know that this is purely a heterosexual relationship. This may seem weird to a western audience, but it’s A-okay in India.

All in all this film is absolutely absurd. I had low expectations going in, mainly because I had some weird prejudice against Bollywood films, but this has changed my mind. Don’t let the running time fool you; it’s worth every minute.