Gabbar Singh rides again

During my college days, I developed a fetish for Hindi films. While my classmates ingested material on the Crimean War and the Battle of Pla...

During my college days, I developed a fetish for Hindi films. While my classmates ingested material on the Crimean War and the Battle of Plassey, I would catch up with the Amitabhs and the Rekhas at matinee shows. It was during one of these escapades that I first watched Sholay in the 8217;80s.

As Ramesh Sippy8217;s saga of a defiant dacoit8217;s daredevilry was re-released recently 8212; with improved digitalised pictures and four-track sound 8212; I joined a crazy crowd at a Mumbai theatre. In silence, the audience savoured yet again Salim-Javed8217;s hard-hitting and history-making script. In this meticulously spun tale, set in rustic Ramgarh, Gabbar the villain continues to win hands down. Perhaps no other baddie in Bollywood8217;s history has been as mythicised, as glorified, as he. Gabbar is not just a villain destined to be defeated. He is a metaphor for a era that challenged the might of the state. In his refusal to be browbeaten, the outlaw sends a message: 8220;Jo dar gaya so mar gaya One who8217;s scared, is dead8221;. He says this nonchalantly, after bumping off three of his trusted men who had returned after being defeated by the Thakur8217;s 8220;army of eunuchs8221;.

Sholay8217;s re-release, 29 years after it first hit theatres on August 15, 1975, coincided with the release of the Aishwarya Rai-Vivek Oberoi-starrer, Kyun Ho Gaya NaKHGN. While Sholay is running to full houses, the candyfloss KHGN is struggling. Do we need a further proof of Sholay8217;s timeless appeal? Nobody makes films like it these days. Like the smug politicians who think that India, despite farmers8217; suicides, 8220;feels good8221;, our movie moghuls don8217;t look beyond the metros. Starting from desi discos, their 8220;stories8221; travel to idyllic foreign locales and end up at city malls. No wonder, most of their offerings bomb at the box office.

Like instant 24X7 news, our films are bereft of content and clarity. In the age of multiplying multiplexes, the film factory spins out sugary, city based tales, ignoring the uncomfortable and grim realities of rural Bharat. The much mellowed angry young man is booming with Boom, even as once socially conscious directors are happy exploring the contours of sexy starlets like Neha Dhupia. Once a Madhubala ruled the marquee. Today it8217;s Mallika Sherawat. What a fall indeed.

Sholay entered the nation8217;s psyche. 8220;I must have seen it 15 times, but cannot stop seeing it again,8221; said Gayanand Masurkar, a Mumbai taxi driver. He speaks for many. Though the film8217;s popularity was broad-based, it seemed to hold a special appeal for the ordinary person. For the deprived and marginalised, Deewar brought new hope, Zanjeer8217;s upright cop fought a battle on behalf of the brutalised. Sholay, in turn, showed that no one was beyond the reach of the law.

I certainly don8217;t regret bunking those boring classes for some classic movies 8212; including, of course, Sholay, the greatest film of that era.