Sholay

Released 1975
Stars Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan
Directed by Ramesh Sippy 

Ok, I love foreign films, but the only other Indian (Hindi) movie I can remember seeing is The Terrorist, which was excellent. It's odd that I haven't seen more, since India makes more movies per year than any other country. After watching Sholay, however, I will not be going out of my way to see any more. Sholay was like Jaws or Star Wars in India, and I don't understand the obsession. It's a familiar story of a village being terrorized by a bandit and the village hiring two men to protect them. Think Seven Samurai set in India. Some aspects of this movie are very good, while others are either terrible or left me scratching my head. First of all, I didn't understand the silly show numbers. There's one with the two thieves on a motorcycle that looks like it came straight out of "The Monkees." I fast-forwarded that one, which was not a problem since this movie is over three hours long. That brings me to the second point which is that almost every scene is too long. It's not that the movie is slow, it's just that every scene is extended. If an American editor got his hands on this thing, I think it would be cut to 90 minutes. Also, the villain, Gabbar Singh, is serviceable but not very interesting. I guess he's a cult hero in India, which once again proves I don't understand India.

Summary by Bill Alward, February 27, 2002