Mr Bachhan, here is your answer.

Recently I read in the newspapers that Amitabh Bachhan expressed his inability to explain the reasons for the longetivity of the all time hit movie ‘Sholay’. It continues to draw the attention of the younger audience and the popularity is intact even after forty years of its initial release and tremendous success. Having seen the movie when I was toddler and failing to remember the experience, I watched it umpteen times in the theatres, cable network and on television channels. Like millions of film viewers in India, almost every dialogue of Sholay is ingrained in my memories forever, is on my tip of tongue and the details of every character in mind. I can claim to analyse why the movie is still a hit and hope Mr Bachhan will agree. Here is my take on popularity of Sholay.

Reflection of diversity: India is a diverse society and we celebrate the same. Every moviemaker aspiring a commercial hit makes it point to reflect that communal harmony and diversity in the movie. Sholay too tries to do it. It has a leader of the village in form of Thakur who is a traditional village elite, subservient Ramuchacha, an ideal family of Thakur with lots of bahu- beti-balaks, a village Muslim representing the Muslims community,  a outlaw bandit in form of Gabbar, Basanti representing working women and poor farmers pleading before  Gabbar’s men. The protagonists Jai and Veeru were shown as lesser known thieves who are co opted in the regular society and pitted against the ruthless dacoit of demonic nature. It is no secret that the movie also drew heavily from the Kurosowa’s classic ‘Seven Samurai’ and other foreign films. But it is essentially an Indian film with all the masala, authentic Indian characters and dramatic situations.

It offers all: like representation of diversity in Indian villages, it also presents a unique blend  of Navrasas i.e nine emotions. Let’s discuss each one of them

1.   Shringar: Shringar is feeling of love, attraction. Dashing Veeru’s and chirpy Basanti’s love story blossoms against the backdrop of Gabbar’s overpowering atrocities over Ramgarh. It’s as case of love at first sight which moves ahead with a dose of comedy (mango shooting, tanki drama) and ultimately ends with Jai-Veeru saving her from Gabbar’s den. There is a forlorn, melancholy love story blossoming between Jai and Radha, widowed daughter in law of Thakur. The story meets an unhappy ending  considering the social restrictions on remarriage of widows in traditional society and Shoaly is seen taking escapist route on this sub plot. Dancer-actress Helen displays energetically earthy and explicit dance for the lovers of that genre.

2.  Hasya: Comedy or laughter rasa: There are exclusive characters for comedy in Sholay. Jagdeep plays Soorma Bhopali and Asrani ‘Angrezon ke jamane ke jailer’. But the best part is that other characters also do their bit for the sake of comedy. Notably Jai plays nasty friend to Veeru by nixing his sussyd (suicide) and marriage plans. And who can forget the classic terse reply from Jai to Basanti – ‘haa… tumhara naam kya hai Basanti. Pehli baar ye naam suna hai’. Amitabh playing Jai coolly displays his wide range of humour in contrast  to lively and cheerful Veeru.

3.   Raudra: Furious. Gabbar is furious over his pithhoos over many petty things. Thakur gets furious over Gabbar, himself and his helplessness.

4.      Karuna: All the members of Thakur’s family getting killed by a dacoit. Thakur was doing his duty as a policeman but the Gabbar takes it personally and seeks a bloody revenge by killing Thakur’s big happy family including children. Viewers must have shaken seeing the mass murder and felt pity for the innocent members of family

5.   Bibhatsya: Aversion, disgust- ‘ab tera kya hoga Kaaliya?’ asks Gabbar to his failed men, gives them a chance of survival by emptying half cartridge and then shoots at them after rotating the randomly filled cartidge. Then he laughs loudly at the luck of three men surviving even after minimalistic chance and then shoots them suddenly. Yuck!

6.     Bhayanak: Horror, terror. Gabbar claims ‘pachas pachas kos jab koi baccha rota hai to maa kehti hai- beta so jaa, nahi to Gabbar aa jayega’ (Mothers tell their naughty toddlers to go to bed threatening them in the name of Gabbar). This is the indirect reference to the terror and notoriety that Gabbar had attained.  

7.     Veer: Heroic. Name of the two heroes are Jai and Veeru meaning Victory and Brave heart. Veer rasa is shown by all the three protagonists- Thakur, Jai and Veeru.

8.   Adbhut: Wonder, amazement. Train robbery was something never seen before on Indian screen. It is speedy and mesmerising action scene even today, when lot of action can be created by using computers technology and specialist action directors.

Mr Bachhan and his family have spent their entire life in the film industry. They know better than anyone else about movies. So also a lot must have already been written about Sholay by social and film scholars. There must have been books, papers etc written on its popularity and analysis by the artists, crtitics and movie lovers. But this was my humble attempt to analyse the complete package that was offered by Sholay.