Sholay: A Total Recall

Sholay is not a movie, its a way of life...at least my life ;)

Watching Sholay on the big screen (that too in 3D) was a complete experience. Complete, since people would have seen it at least a hundred times (what!! you haven't seen it that many times - get your filthy mouse off this blog) on small screen but watching it in theater with surround sound (and in 3D!) was surreal. Let me just give you instances why this experience of mine was a complete paisa-vasool and much more:

* Things flying off the screen right into your face - well that is what 3D is all about - but this is logs, gravels, boulders from Ramgarh! I mean, come on!

I was pretty sure that the train robbery sequence would be amazing on 70mm (that, technically speaking is width of the film reel but that is how you show off when you mean larger screens) and it absolutely was! With dakus flying-off horses' back and in slo-mo was thrillingly beautiful. It felt like I was there on the maalgaadi from district Jamalpur with dacoits trying to rob - what is my best guess...oil drums. And that scene where the logs shoot off the track after Veeru's daringly "high" act - WOW! They spent some money on adding a few logs to give you that 3D shocker and I tell you that was money well spent. On a sober note, they could have done much better with some other scenes but I am not complaining. There were screeching sparks from the tracks, boulders in that Basanti ki ijjat ka sawal  chase sequence and ashes from the blown off bridge in the climactic scene, where the surreal experience was just perfect!

* Characters - as if they are your long lost kin and reunited after ages (39 yrs for some, at least 20 for me when I had seen Sholay for the first time on TV).

Jai, Veeru - Refreshingly Young and dashing in denims - no gay undertones here but Veeru looked raw and He-Manish in almost every frame (but for his tummy in some scenes :P). 

Basanti - Smoldering, what else would you call her with that extra pink blush on her cheeks.

Gabbar - Yucky, ugly, loathsome and worth every penny of that poore pachaas hazzar!

Thakur - Crisp, revengeful and youngest old man in Ramgarh.

Ramlaal - An Ideal Man Friday who would dish out anything from cash to photos to FBI secret files (just getting carried away here), at one twitch of Thakur's eyes.

Imaam saheb - actors should take lessons from his blind-act - bechara to the T and his "Itna sannata kyun hai bhai". Gave me goose bumps in Abdul's mourning scene.

Radha - the silent one and the conscience keeper.

Mausi - So cute that you would love to have a mausi like that! - Reminds me of that Chashm-e-baddoor scene where Dipti Naval kissed Mausi (her dadi in that movie) and then says - "Lipstick laga!"

Surma Bhopali, Angrezon ke zamane ke jailor, Sambha, Kalia, his side kicks (that actor who got his place in cinematic history with that so blandly uttered abuse), Shankar, Dinanath, Kashiram...part of my consanguinity.

* Dialogs - so Sholaystic (not scholastic mind you!).

It starts with - 

"Aadmi aur sikkey me shayad yahi farak hai"

"Istick toh mein rakhta hun aur jo istick maine phinphnayee"

"Haramjada"

"Wo hai na hari ram naii, jailor ka bada moonh laga hai muaan...haaaan"

and the epochal ones -

"Kitne aadmi thhe"

"Basanti in kutton ke samney mat nachna"

"Bahut katili nachaniya hogi...humko bhi dikhao 2-3 thumke"

I am a complete sucker for anything Sholay. What! You don't believe, ask D - she has to keep up with my stale Sholay jokes, day-in, day-out. Sholay is history, geography, memories...it is much, much, much more than a movie. I mean it has made people's lives - take Raju Srivastav for instance, he has made a career out of Sholay jokes.  

Thanks D for this total recall! Had I not watched Sholay in theater - zindagi se shikwa na hota par zindagi, zindagi na hoti ;).