Samuel Benoit

This post is the second in an ongoing series of reviews of popular Bollywood movies.  The first was of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

One method I have been using to convey the importance of the Bollywood films I choose to show at my ongoing film festival is to compare them to their Hollywood equivalent in terms of placement on the list of highest-grossing films after adjusting for inflation.  For example, the film Sholay is the Gone With The Wind of Indian cinema in the number one spot on that list.

Sholay came out in 1975 and failed at first at the box office.  Word of mouth gave it new life and kept it in theatres for five years straight.  It stars Amitabh Bachchan, the freakishly tall ex-king of Bollywood.  It is BBC India’s ‘Film of the Millenium’ and among Indiatimes’ 25 Must See Bollywood Films.  If you haven’t gotten it yet – this movie is a really big deal.  I, for one, wanted to know why.  How did it make so much money, get onto so many lists, become known as a classic in so many countries and how did Amitabh Bachchan inspire that kid to jump in Slumdog Millionaire into so much poop?

Record-breaking motorcycle-with-sidecar-wheelies ensued, poignant coin metaphors were dropped and disbelief was suspended as some of us decided to take India’s advice and watch it’s all-time favorite movie.

Just when we thought there was no movie star worth diving into a pile of poop to get the autograph of, we met the lanky,young Amitabh Bachchan.  Just when we thought that the character who always had a blanket draped over was just doing that because his arms were always cold, we learned he had no arms at all.  Just when we thought that having no arms meant you couldn’t strangle someone, that guy with no arms strangled someone.  Just when we thought no one was worth the effort of strangling if you don’t have any arms, we met the villainous Gabbar Singh.

The film teased us as it looked like it was about to challenge some controversial traditional Indian practices, but then tragically killed off any characters that posed a significant challenge to the status quo.  Three stars – intense, funny and lots of fun to watch with a group of people.

Here’s the trailer, with German subtitles for your convenience: