If I were to make a list of my favorite films ever, this one would definitely be in the top 5. It is a film I grew up watching. I think the last time I watched it was maybe around 1989 or 1990. It was certainly before I went to secondary school thus before satellite television, showing western and Arab fare replaced VHS tapes which had been rather evenly split between Hollywood, with films like Rambo, Westerns and musicals; Bollywood and kung-fu movies.

Released in 1975, it is a Bollywood production that tells a story of how 2 good hearted, brave crooks are recruited by a retired policeman who had previously arrested them, to save his village from a cruel dacoit and his gang. I could not find the full movie on Youtube, so I spent the last 3 hours watching clips from the film. Sholay stars Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendhra, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri and Amjad Khan. Typical of Bollywood productions, the film is a mixture of genres - it has action scenes, romance, comedy, tragedy, drama, singing and dancing.

The action scenes typically involve the 2 stars fighting the bad guys either with fists or guns. Seeing it now, the action is not well done, but that does not detract from the film.

The 2 romances are between Dharmendra and Hema Malini and Amitabh and Jaya. The first couple's romance was rather comical because the characters they both portrayed were light hearted and rather silly. The second couple however, had a beautifully distant relationship (if it could be called that) framed by the lady's sorrow and the man's frustrated, though acknowledged desire. It was full of melancholy, which I think is what makes the greatest romances. In real life, Amitabh married Jaya during filming while Dharmendra wooed Hema and married her afterwards.

Another beautiful relationship in the film was the relationship between the 2 crooks, portrayed by Amitabh & Dharmendra. There is a scene in Disney's 1967 production of The Jungle Book where Bagheera says "greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." Bagheera's deep voice lends that line a solemn gravity. The scene in this movie where one of the 2 friends gives up his life to save his friend, is done with similar tastefulness.

In a film full of stars that all acted wonderfully, Amjad Khan's portrayal of the gang leader was particularly fantastic. I think I have only ever seen Amjad Khan in one other movie, probably because I stopped watching Indian films a long time ago. In this movie, he was cruel enough to murder an entire family including a kid as revenge for getting arrested by the retired police officer. His sadistic anti-social cruelty was in stark opposition to Sanjeev Kumar's social responsibility. The enmity between them is the catalyst for the entire story.

When the film was released, it received negative reviews in India. I often wonder about the expertise of film "experts" since it seems films that are critically acclaimed are rarely liked by the public while films the public likes are negatively appraised. Regardless, this film has been voted as the best ever Bollywood production. Its influence on Indian Cinema has been likened to what Star Wars did for sci-fi. Amjad Khan's portrayal of Gabbar Singh was voted greatest ever Bollywood villain with many of his lines entering common usage in India. The film also was probably the beginning of Amitabh's super stardom.

This is a really beautiful film, it is highly recommended.