Sholay

Opening Scene

From the opening shots in a desolate train station to the opening music, reminiscent of Stagecoach (1939), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Blazing Saddles (1974), you know you are watching something very different. Sholay (1975) is something very different: it is the curry western, and one of the biggest, best, and most enduringly popular films ever made in Bombay. People don’t quote Sholay, they recite it. It’s a cultural touchstone, like A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), The Sound of Music (1965), and The Godfather (1972) all rolled into one.

Veeru and Jai meet Basanti

 Retired police officer and local landowner Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) arranges for small-time crooks Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) to be released from jail and brought to his village. There he offers them a deal- the capture of local psychotic dacoit (bandit) Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) in exchange for lots of money. In the village they meet tonga-driver Basanti (Hema Malini) and Thakur Singh’s widowed daughter-in-law (Jaya Bhaduri, real-life spouse of Amitabh Bachchan). Romance, dance sequences and shoot-outs ensure.

Holi!

The film was shot in the rocky landscape of Ramanagara, in the Indian state of Karnataka. Just as the premise- evil bandits vs roughish men of honor- tracks classic tropes of the Western genre and makes them specific, director Ramesh Sippy chose a setting that is reminiscent of American west but fundamentally South Asian.

Jai + Radha + harmonica

The director makes the most of the sparse scenery with wide shots and interesting camera angles. Some of the Holi scene was shot from the Ferris wheel, a creative touch that gives Holi an unusually festive touch. The fascinating little scene before the dacoits first attack, in which the rhythms of village life are amplified, is visually and acoustically inspired. The filmmakers understood the power of sound; in one key scene the director omits background noise entirely in favor of the sound of a squeaking swing, to great effect. The delicately realized love story between Jai and Radha are accompanied by plaintive tunes played on Jai’s harmonica.

Basanti dancing for Veeru's life

Sholay has some interesting things to say about gender and family. Both the independently-minded Basanti and the demure widowed Radha are shown to be desirable women, in spite of the fact that neither of them are the ideal reserved, obedient, virginal brides. Basanti’s determined dance on glass may be a sign of her devotion to Veeru, but it is also badass. Neither woman has led “ideal” family lives- Basanti’s parents are absent and Radha is a widow living alone with her father-in-law. The fact that their love interests are jailbirds who happen to have hearts of gold does not negate the fact that these are women following their hearts in less-than-traditional directions.

To some extent this is the result of the fundamental structure of the film, which shows the lines between law and order and criminality blur.  When law and order disintegrate, the desirable hero becomes the man who can provide protection- and in this village, that is Jai and Veeru. It is notable that these heroes still report to the local landowner/law-breaking police officer in a village in a modern nation-state. At the time things in India were getting slippery. In Sholay, as law and order crumble the only way to restore it is through violence. This film was also released the same year PM Indira Gandhi declared The Emergency in an attempt to maintain control- by violence.

Yep.

It has also been argued that the most important love story of the film is between Jai and Veeru. Before watching Sholay I read in several academic articles that the motorcycle song-and-dance scene in the film is homoerotic. And I thought, “Those smutty academics, they find homoeroticism absolutely everywhere.” Turns out, those academics were on to something. Now, it is true that in much of the world male friendship is shown in more physically affectionate ways than in the U.S., and that male friendship can be more openly, unapologetically close. Even with this in mind, Sholay is definitely homoerotic.

Ultimately Sholay is not interested in upsetting the established social order. The rich stay rich, the poor stay poor, widows stay widows, and no one stays gay. What makes Sholay so important is that it is really, really good.

Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh

The performance of Amjad Khan, the actor portraying the psychotic dacoit Gabbar Singh, is strikingly good. In this role, in this context, it would have been easy to play Gabbar Singh off as flamboyantly insane, but the performance is sinister without straying (often) into the realm of camp. Indeed, the acting is solid throughout the film, which divides what could have unintentionally become the Hindi-language Blazing Saddles from what it actually is- a classic which has stood the test of time.

White bell bottoms

A few criticisms: at three and a half hours long, some of the film is bound to be expendable. This viewer could have done without the unusually vulgar item number, the Holi scene, and especially the jail; Hitler jokes are never really funny. The violence is mostly depersonalized and glorified throughout. At least one death scene suggests the director's knowledge of biology was paltry, and the final scene in particular could have used a bit more movie magic. The biggest tragedy might be that AB wears white bell-bottoms jeans. None of these complaints have prevented me from watching this film at least once a year. It is endlessly quotable and endlessly entertaining, so grab a few samosas and all your friends and enjoy!

Film: Sholay (1975) 

Director: Ramesh Sippy 

Writers: Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan (as Salim-Javed)

Country: India 

Runtime: 198 minutes 

Language: Hindi

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Kahaani

Victoria Memorial

The search for a missing person, a mysterious woman, an enamored police officer, coils within coils- Hindi cinema is not known for neo-noir, but Kahaani (2012), set in Kolkata in the days leading up to Durga Puja, suggests it should be.  The use of religious imagery remind the viewer that greater forces are at work than meet the eye. Strings of fairy lights highlight the darkness; fireworks distract more than they illuminate; neon bulbs reveal grime and indifference; monsters ooze wickedness in the shadows, and kajal hides the secrets behind the femme fatal’s eyes. Blues, oranges, and grays form the palette of the film, and their constant presence ties the many locations across Kolkata together.

Tram Depot

Setting this film in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta, sometimes still Calcutta depending on the politics of your conversation partner) was a unique choice: the city is not generally the site of Hindi-language films, although it is easy to find Tollywood films shot in Kolkata. Luckily for viewers, Kahaani shows off Kolkata in all her extravagant, cosmopolitan glory. As a leading cast member, the city is magnificent.

Durga and Kali

Intrinsic to Kolkata is the annual Durga Puja, the celebration of the Hindu goddess Durga’s defeat of the demon Mahishasura, and her return to visit to her maternal home. Created from power donated by the other gods to defeat the demon, Durga is a loving and lethal mother goddess, and the ten-day celebration of Durga’s victory over the forces of evil is a major holiday throughout Eastern India and into Bangladesh. Pandals, temporary structures venerating Durga, are a major visual theme in Kahaani, and several scenes are shot in Kumortuli, a community in northern Kolkata where pottery is made. Durga’s significance is explained in some heavy-handed exposition at the end of the film (narrated by Amitabh Bachchan) but her role is visually suggested within the first minutes. Durga is also associated with Indian nationalism and the idea of Mother India.

Durga submerged at the end of the Puja

Like Kolkata and Durga, Vidya Balan is also magnificent, as per usual- she is a remarkable actress with a penchant for playing strong, intelligent, sexual women in unique projects like this one (please also see Ishqiya). In this film, she plays Vidya Bagchi, a heavily pregnant software engineer who takes none of the patriarchy’s shit. Particularly satisfying is the scene in which she yells at the guest house owner for ignoring her and appealing to the man standing next to her. 

This is something every woman (literally every woman) has either thought or yelled at some point in her life, at colleagues, doctors, mechanics, bankers, salespeople- possibly all of the above. The struggle to be acknowledged as equal- or acknowledged at all- is ongoing.

Vidya’s unapologetic determination to find her husband, while heavily pregnant with his child, makes the romantic undertones even more interesting. The growing attraction of young police officer Satyoki "Rana" Sinha is played with sensitivity by Bengali actor and director Parambrata Chatterje. She stumbles and he catches her; she leans over and he smells her hair. Vidya’s allure is understated but immediate, and Balan injects personality and humanity into the role of a femme fatal. How could Rana fail to fall in love?  

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who similarly appears frequently in parallel cinema (please see The Lunchbox (2013)) makes another welcome addition to the cast, and Saswata Chatterjee is fantastic as contract killer Bob Biswas. The film, however, belongs to Balan, Durga, and Kolkata.

Kahaani doesn’t include any of the frequent singing and dancing usually associated with Bollywood cinema, any more than C.I.D did in 1956. Noir is not a genre that lends itself to exuberance, so don’t come looking for choreography.

If, on the other hand, you are looking for a feminist take on the genre, or indeed a feminist take on anything, this is an empowering option. But to my mind it is worth watching for the interactions between the light and darkness in Kolkata: the city sets and then steals the scene in every shot.

I have yet to find a great history of the city, but for a slice of its history I recommend Producing Workers: The Politics of Gender, Class,and Culture in the Calcutta Jute Mills, by Leela Fernandes. Esoteric yes, but I promise you will learn something new. I also recommend Sanjay Patel’s The Little Book of Hindu Deities for an accessible intro to Hinduism. It was written for children but with a sense of humor and great illustrations, and is light enough for travel.

A few notes:

‘Arjun’s charioteer’ is a reference to the conversations between Arjuna, hero of the epic Mahabharata and his charioteer (a disguised Lord Krishna) which form the Bhagavad Gita. The gist is that Lord Krishna, disguised as the charioteer, encourages Arjun to do his duty.

Throughout the film Vidya (whose name means wisdom or knowledge) struggles to correct the pronuncion of her name from “Bidya” to “Vidya”. This is a running joke about Bengali pronunciation, which makes little to no distinction between the sounds and uses the same letter for both.

Finally, code switching between English, Hindi and Bengali occurs throughout the film and denotes class and origin. Rana speaks with his mother in Bengali but Hindi or English with Vidya and Khan. Vidya asks Rana to translate written Bengali for her; the hotel owner, less familiar with English, calls Vidya “Majesty”. Subtitles don’t pick it up, but as a rule, if Rana is speaking with someone from Kolkata he is speaking Bengali. Otherwise, he is speaking Hindi. 

Film: Kahaani (2012)
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Writers: Sujoy Ghosh and Advaita Kala
Country: India
Runtime: 122 minutes
Languages: Hindi, Bengali, English

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