Revisiting Sholay @ Spiritual Ambience
Sholay is the magnum opus of Bollywood that restructured the commercial format of Indian cinema. Even in today’s era of technical advancement and digital revolution, Sholay stands tall and also throw cinematic challenge to seasoned filmmakers to surpass its legacy. There was no befitting suitor to surpass the colossal challenge shows the benchmark Sholay put on the show biz.
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Since the louder facts of the film are reviewed by the critics & film buffs, I zoom to subtle nuances that secretly encoded in some scenes. The director’s moment in a film is usually marked by shift that happens in the viewer from ‘plain viewing’ to ‘watching experience’. Such a paradigm shift occurs only when director with array of shots visually gratify gist of theme, beneath the ongoing narrative.
In other sense, build up created by scriptwriter with the help of words gets demolished and replaced by visual interpretation. Due to the visual elevation director excels as a master craftsman. Many scenes in Sholay had signature of master craftsmanship. Let me first decode train sequence were the two lead characters Veeru & Jai are introduced.
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Veeru chats with inspector Thakur & Jai sleeps, their body language in the opening shot bestows dimension these two characters going to play through out the film. Veeru is energetic and wild while Jai is calm/composed & less spoken. This character sketch gets established from the first shot. As per the Indian metaphysics, energetic is the representation of Rajas and composure representation of Sattvik. To add more Sattvik quality the makers sprinkled Sri Krishna’s flora to Jai character making him play mouth organ, replaced by the flute of Sri Krishna.
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The similarity between Sri Krishna & Jai does not end with mouth organ, it becomes more & more obvious in the presence of cattle, farming and also the poignant/intense adoration Jai had with Radha. It will be foolish if the similarities been scoffed off as coincidence. It is definitely an inspirationally teared leaf from the mythological character. Otherwise why filmmakers pick the name Radha which is the exact name of Sri Krishna’s evergreen lover?
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Another significant fact is, Radha’s love with Sri Krishna never got fulfilled similarly Radha had unfulfilled love with Jai. Director illustrated the sunset of love with a gesture of Radha closing the window in her last shot. This exhibits Director’s command on the visual surging above words. Though Jai had a few shades of Sri Krishna, writer never equated or uplifted Jai to Pure Sattvik quality, which is the hallmark of godly nature. Writer underlined it loud and clear through the dialogue articulated by inspector Thakur to his fellow policeman about Jai & Veeru, they are bad but human. Making all the three lead characters (Jai, Veeru & Thakur) as mix of good and bad is yet another insight that humans are individuals with flaws. Upanishads proclaim that human birth happen only when good/pure and evil/sins feature in karmic debts. Absence of one quality is absurd and fantasy.
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From the film context Veeru deemed to be the protagonist but from the plot context Jai is the kingmaker because Jai takes ultimate decisions. Jai made Veeru follow him unknowingly using Toss method. The specialty of the coin is its one sided and the custody of the coin always with Jai. All riddles were solved using the coin and who tosses the coin in the air? Jai tosses and call the shots making Veeru mere spectator in the process. Whatever intent Jai had in his mind triumphed; the escape from train, accepting the task to catch gabber and climax scene were Jai’s made Veeru to obey his decision bitterly. Veeru refrain from killing Gabbar due to the promise Jai gave to Thakur.
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This dictum is aligned with spiritual doctrine. Sattvic guides Rajasivic that is why kings had Raja Guru (courtier) in their assembly. Temperament is vital in decision-making. A composed state augurs right thinking, which brings the best possible result rather than haste actions. Thus writers aptly put onus on Jai to take the story forward to its closure than Veeru.
Tossing represents unknown fate and Jai’s cunning call represent decision-making, which fulfill the spiritual truth that person’s fate depends upon their decision. You reap what you sow or your present state is due to past action (which is referred as Karma in Sanskrit) Action = thinking plus doing. Jai teaches that when you are in state of blue, take a decision yourself and move on than brooding in uncertainty.
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Like Sri Krishna, Jai too is savior that has a duty to rescue countrymen from evil mongers engaging in tough battle. Jai’s evolution from evil to good or from robbery to service reflects the abstract philosophy that badness cannot be the end of the tunnel. In repentance lies opportunity for betterment. It bestows change by which previous sinful actions turn immaterial. Valmiki was also robber before transition as a sage in Ramayana. Jai is not elevated to exalted state; nevertheless it marks necessity to renovate oneself, which everyone undergoes at some stage of life.
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Another prominent subtle characterization in train scene is connected with Thakur who is the axis of the whole story. He is portrayed as helpless police officer in the film. Though it is symbolically represented with no hands but one more activity that reaffirm helplessness by becoming unconscious after stricken with a rifle bullet in the middle of a counter attack. This proves that Thakur solo game to finish threat posed by Gabbar & goons will not work. There should be powerful leverage to wage war, which he discovers in Jai & Veeru.
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The defiant moment in train sequence that underlies mindset of Thakur and also set tone of whole story is when he pierces handcuff of Veeru & Jai with a gunshot. Even being courageous police officer his belief in law gets jolted at later stages. He revamps mindset by concluding that the only way to hunt and seek revenge is to take law in hand. The gunshot is prologue of inspector Thakur dismantling slave mentality towards law & goes for kill on his risk.
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Gabbar is bizarre from other Bollywood antagonist. The introductory scene of Gabbar exemplifies the pattern through which the story in Sholay evolves. Gabbar renders dialogue in peculiar way; this is also his modus of operandi. At first he talks in sluggish tone concord with simple body texture and then replicates it in aggressive tone and mannerism. In the intro Gabbar grills Kaaliya: hmm do aadmi! He expresses it poetically, in split seconds he yells, which baffles audience. After yelling, once more the slow pace in dialogue delivery returns shortly intimidate with action & speech. The same rendering style is followed in the punch dialogue: Yeh haath mujje dedo Thakur!
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Gabbar’s pursuit unfolding from mellowness to ferocious seems exactly like the flow of the film. The twist and turns in the plot ooze through happiness and then ushered with menace. Goons first attack to the villagers occurs after the love shots between Basanti and Veeru. The intention of this scene is to show dalliance between mates and more precisely the expertise Veeru and Jai in shootouts. This funny shoot flick is tryout session to actual shootout between goons and team Thakur. Even though there is a terrorizing factor in the encounter, it was overshadowed by the comic feel due to Veeru’s gesture and Kaliya’s dialogue.
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Next sequence after this is showoff of Gabbar’s dexterity with rifle. He also starts process in funny frame of mind and howl with laughter reverberate the atmosphere he pulls trigger, suddenly everything halts in pin drop silence.
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Brutality in the midst of happiness is the hallmark of theme. There is a scene in-between Basanti-Veeru and the clash between goons & team Thakur that is meticulously choreographed to balance extreme moods. Jai’s whimsical with buffalo & radha’s laughter, which shift to melancholic mouthorgan performance by Jai while Radha lights lamp. Exhibiting chemistry between Jai and Radha is the main purpose nevertheless beneath the surface there is adjoining moment of happiness & sorrow. This combination is not a one time event.
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Next encounter between Gabbar & team Thakur is ferocious that occurs after the pompous Holi song. Flashback of Gabbar slaying Thakur’s kins is also on festive occasion. Jai and Veeru’s counter attack to Gabbar gang initiate in-between item dance, retaliation from Gabbar kicks off after Veeru’s witty suicidal attempt. Shoot out in the main climax triggers after Basanti’s dance. What is evident from all these?
It highlight that Sholay pitches on Gabbar style of sedate to aggressive shift. This augments terror after the laughter. Drunken Veeru mention to villagers that it is a sad story with emotion, drama and tragedy. In adjacent sequence villagers gets a letter, which conveys Gabbar’s message: if they don’t amend then face dance of death in every happy moments (ramgarh ke har aanad mei moth nachekgi). I feel that protagonist and antagonist are not addressing the villagers but the viewers to talk about the epitome of Sholay.
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Birth & death or happiness & terror encompassed in storyline and Gabbar the deceit an embodiment of both, are symbolical representation of life itself. As spirituality elucidates life comes with a carry-bag of happiness & sorrow. For every up there is down and for every high there is low. No person gains everlasting joy; climb down to opposite realm is certain. Every situation pass away is the sacred message. The up and down formula of life, writers Salim-Javed artistically adapted, synchronized and authenticated in plot, propelled with technical astuteness made Sholay a class apart.
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All actors flourished with startling performance onscreen. Akira Kurusowa’s renown film Seven Samurai and Raj Khosla’s film Mera Gaon Mera Desh had similar backdrop in the plot and making style. Having said that, director Ramesh Sippy command in mis-en-scene is iconic. It reflects in ant roaming in Gabbar’s hand (before murdering the youth) or Veeru, smashing stick into two (as breaking pledge) & shooting spree yoked in slow motion at Thakur’s inmates particularly Gabbar slowly appear tucking in a horse in between the swing swaddle and kid like messenger of death is mind-boggling.
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Editing, Music Cinematography, and Sound effects acted coherently with the narrative rhythm. In the train chase sequence goons seen between thorns in single frame, horses’ hustle through reddish sky indicating the forthcoming avanchale and the natural lighting in lamp shot epitomize profound vision cinematographer Dwarka Divecha discovered through camera lens.
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The straight cut from pistol pointed on Takur’s grandchild to the train smoke and also the revelations bought by blowing wind in major sequences reveals splendiferous touch editor MS Shinde graced to the film. The soundtracks of RD Burman enhance emotions trekking from soothe to savagery. The song Yeh Dosti appears after train chase so train movement inbuilt in the rhythm. Similarly, from humming ooh ooh, lays possibility of confusing train whistle with human voice that much delicate the tone oozes out in Mehabooba song.
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The remarkable feet musician achieve by intoning BGM with state of affairs is noteworthy. Sound effects of coin tossing, gunshots, belt, boot & rocks in the intro scene of Gabbar and in many other shots are astonishing.
Written by Rajesh Nanoo, Writer, Director & Actor. SWA, Mumbai – 25240. mediavibesfilms@gmail.com
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