Weekend

In today’s weekend blog, I am writing about the artists of one of the greatest picture ever come from the stable of Bollywood. Over the years most of people associated with Indian film industry have agreed that this is the most entertaining film ever made in India .Friends, you must have guessed  I am talking about which film, yes it is Sholay. This film was released on 15^th August 1975 with big fanfare, during the first week critics panned this film and even audience reactions were not very great. But by the end of 2^nd week this film picked up and it never looked back. During those days, it celebrated 25 weeks (silver jubilee) run at more than 200 theatres in the country. The film  became such a craze that cassettes and records of the film’s dialogue were also released on public demand. Recently on completion of 45 years of release, a special trailer was launched on you tube, which gave inspiration to write about this film’s artisan.

Now let us discuss about the star cast of this film

1 Sanjeev Kumar played the role of Thakur Baldev Singh. For most of the time in the film, he is shown as without his both the arms. How he enacted this role is to be seen, without the use of his hands/arms he was unable to gesture, but his eyes used to speak. He  died in late 1980s.

2 Dharmendra played the role of Veeru, who is a happy go lucky chap, who will do any thing for his friend Jai. He falls in love with Basanti. Played the role in his usual style.

3 Hema Malini played the role of Basanti, who is Tonga operator and talks non stop. She is in love with Dharmendra, but her Mausi is not willing for this match. Her character was liked by audience, and her acting in comedy scenes was appreciated.

4 Amitabh Bachachan played the role of Veeru’s friend Jai, who is opposite of Veeru, a silent personality. He  falls for Thakur’s widowed daughter in law Radha. Acted quite well.

5 Jaya Bhaduri played the role of Radha,  a suffering widow, who slowly starts liking Jai. A very subdued role performed beautifully.

6 Amzad Khan played the role of Gabbar Singh, the villain who kills members of Thakur’s family. Considering this was his first film, he acted brilliantly and could stand against stalwarts like Sanjeev Kumar  and Dharmendra. His one liner dialogue became very famous. He is  dead now.

The above artists formed the main star cast of the film, and there were many other characters, which were performed by various artists and these roles also became so famous that many of these artists were remembered for the role played in this film for rest of their life.

1 Satyen Kappu as Thakur’s servany and man Friday Ramlal. He is dead now.

2 AK Hangal as Rahim Chacha, Imam of mosque whose  son is killed by Gabbar Singh. He is also dead.

3 Sachin as Ahmad, Rahim CHacha’s grand son.

4 Jagdeep as Soorma Bhopali, a comical wood trader. His dialogue delivery style became so famous that for rest of his life he was forced to speak dialogue the Soorma Bhopali speaks. Now dead.

5 Asrani as the Jailor, a comical character in the style of Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator. Even his dialogue delivery style became very famous.

6 Keshto Mukherjee as Hariram, prison barber who is jailor’s side kick. He is also dead.

7 Mac Mohan as Sambha, Gabbar’s side kick. The dialogue ‘ Kitne Aadmi The Sambha’ became a cult dialogue. Dead now.

8 Leela Mishra as Basanti’s Mausi. The way she acted in a scene with Amitabh, when he takes Veeru’s proposal of marriage with Basanti to her. She is also dead now.

9 Viju Khote as Kaalia, another Gabbar’s man whom he kills in a game of Russian roulette. One liner ‘Tera Kya Hoga Kaalia’ became very famous. He is dead now.

10 Raj Kishore as a jail inmate who has gay mannerism. Dead now.

11 Iftekhar as Inspector Khurana,  Radha’s father. He is also dead now.

12 Jalal Agha and Helen in special appearance in song ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’.  Jalal Agha is dead now.

 

Now coming to artisans who were behind the scene

1 GP Sippy– he produced the film under the banner of GP Sippy Films. Dead now.

2  Ramesh Sippy– he directed the film, it was his 3^rd film as director. After Sholay also he directed few films, but could not achieve the same success.

3 Salim Khan & Javed Akhtar– they wrote story, screenplay and dialogue . They were known by their team name Salim Javed

4 RD Burman– he composed the music for this film. The songs of the film became very popular. But experts say that the back ground music of the film was beyond comparison, no film after Sholay has been unab;le to match the background score of Sholay. He also sang “ Mehbooba Mehbooba”. He died in 1994

5 Anand Bakshi– Lyricist. Dead now.

6 Dwarka Diwecha– Cinematographer. Dead now.

7 MS Shinde– Editor. Dead now.

8 Lata Mangeshkar– Playback Singer. She sand duet Hilo Ke Din Dil khil Jaate Hain, Jab Tak Hain Jaan Main Nachungi’.

9 Kishore Kumar– Playback Singer . He snag duets  ‘Yesh Dosti and Holi Ke Din,  and Koi Hassena Jab Rooth Jaati Hai’. Dead now.

10 Manna Dey– Playback Singer. He sand duet ‘Yesh Dosti Hum Nahin Chodenge.’

I hope you must have enjoyed this and while reading this you must have remember the film Sholay.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

2^nd October 2020