Before adding my own review of this widely acknowledged iconic film of Hindi cinema, I went through several of the reviews of this film. Majority of the reviewers appear to have been born just before or just after this film was first released in August 1975. In other words, they didn't experience it firsthand at theaters and were probably already preconditioned with all the incredible hype surrounding this film. I remember its original release at Minerva Theater in Bombay very well. I have seen this film in both its endings: The one in which the Gabbar Singh character gets killed by Thakur and the alternative ending where Thakur just stops short of killing Hari "Gabbar" Singh at the behest of the police. Salim Khan (father of actor Salman Khan) and Javed Akhtar wrote one of the most memorable dialogues for a Hindi film character in Gabbar Singh. However, this film's key storyline is nothing but a rip off of several classic Westerns: Both from Sergio Leone and from John Sturges' remake of Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI. Gabbar's killing of Thakur's family is nothing but a rip off of Henry Fonda's "Frank" who kills off the McBain family (including McBain's little boy) in Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Amjad Khan (son of veteran Hindi film villain Jayant) owns this film. Without his interpretation of Gabbar Singh, this film would not be worth watching. With that being said, his interpretation of Gabbar is also a rip off of the great Italian actor Gian Maria Volonte's "Indio" from Leone's FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. The base theme of SHOLAY is a Hindi reworking of SEVEN SAMURAI / THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. The vast majority of the Hindi film audience who praised SHOLAY to no end were not aware that its key points were plagiarized from the classic Italian and Hollywood Westerns. There were also some really silly scenes: Dharmendra's ridiculous mock "suicide"; the very annoying Basanti character of Hema Malini; etc. Aside from Gabbar Singh, the only interesting characters were that of Thakur (portrayed by Sanjeev Kumar) and Thakur's widowed daughter-in-law (portrayed by Jaya Bhaduri). Film director Ramesh Sippy ought to be ashamed of his plagiarism of the classic Westerns he ripped off and never openly credited. Aside from the key action scenes, SHOLAY really drags. SHOLAY is hardly a true "Hindi" film in the tradition of Golden Age classics of Hindi cinema which were truly Indian subjects (e.g., Roti-1942; Do Bigha Zamin; Pyaasa; Sahib, Bibi, aur Ghulam; Mughal-E-Azam; Pakeezah; etc.). SHOLAY is one of those movies which can be truly be labeled "Bollywood"...AKA when (way too often) Hindi cinema rips off Hollywood. Having seen SHOLAY in its 2nd week of release back in late August 1975 at Minerva Theater and a couple of times since, I can only state that SHOLAY is the most overrated Hindi film ever.
Review of Sholay
