Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
The most popular film in Bollywood history, Sholay is the Once Upon a Time in the West of the subcontinent. It's hard to miss the Western influence on gunslinging heroes, galloping horses, ruthless bandits etc., but the heroes are less Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid than 70's "buddy" cops. There isn't much to the plot -- two ex-cons, Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra) -- are recruited to capture the bandit leader Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan).
Unfortunately, the Bollywood approach seems to involve a kitchen sink. What ought to have been a quick, by-the-numbers affair is padded out by flashbacks, two romances, a lengthy prison sequence, half a dozen songs and a side story about a young man who won't leave his elderly relative to take a job in the city. No fan of Leone or Kurosawa could begrudge a leisurely pace, but Sholay isn't stretched out for reasons of atmosphere: it's long because most of it should have been left on the cutting-room floor, but wasn't.
I suppose that it's not fair to criticize the film for belonging to the Bollywood tradition, rather than to the Hollywood, but by my usual standards there's very little here to like. Performances are fair, but dragged down by overdramatic (and occasionally hilarious) direction. I can think of few scenes with more comedic potential than the fight between Gabbar Singh and the thakur. And then there are the songs, of course. Most are rather catchy, just entirely inappropriate by standards that prize film realism.
It's actually pretty entertaining, though: a kind of maudlin B-grade Rio Bravo àla Sergio Leone.