Revision as of 22:20, 17 March 2014

Sholay (1975)

Thakur hits Gabbar with his spiked shoes. (Sholay (1975): Scene deleted by the censors.)

But, as Thakur discovers, it is not the spiked shoes that kill Gabbar. Thakur's assault on Gabbar's chest had made him fall on a sharp iron spike embedded in the pillar behind him. (Till the 1980s or '90s the good guys were not alllowed to kill even murderous screen villains, on the ground that death sentences were something best left to the judiciary. Therefore, during the fight sequence in the climax the haresd villain, whom the audience wanted dead,would stumble off a cliff, get bitten by a snake or die of his own bullet, so that the hero could not be accused of taking the law into his own hands.) (Sholay (1975): Scene deleted by the censors.)

The dying Gabbar falls down. (Sholay (1975): Scene deleted by the censors.)

Veeru (centre) brings the shawl that the armless Thakur (left) generally uses to conceal his armlessness. Gabbar lies dead on the right. (Sholay (1975): Scene deleted by the censors.)

Crew

Director: Ramesh Sippy

Writers: Salim-Javed (Salim Khan, Javed Akhtar)

Produced by G.P. Sippy

Director of photography: Dwarka Divecha ...

Sound re-recording: Mangesh Desai ...

Film Editor: M.S. Shinde

Production Company: United Producers, Sippy Films

Cast

Dharmendra Veeru

Sanjeev Kumar Thakur Baldev Singh

Hema Malini Basanti

Amitabh Bachchan Jai

Jaya Bhaduri Radha

Amjad Khan Gabbar Singh

A.K. Hangal Imam Saheb

Satyen Kappu Ramlal

Iftekhar Narmala ji (Radha's father)

Leela Mishra Mausie

Vikas Anand Jailer

Mac Mohan Sambha

Keshto Mukherjee Hariram

Sachin Ahmed

Master Alankar Joshi Deepak

Viju Khote Kaalia

Major Anand and Bihari: The two dacoits whom Gabbar kills because they were funks (jo dar gaya)

Asrani The British-era Jailor

Gita Siddharth Deepak's mother

Helen ‘Mehbooba,’ the gypsy dancer

P. Jairaj Police chief

Jagdeep Soorma Bhopali

Jalal Agha The one who sings ‘Mahbooba’

Om Shivpuri Inspector Saheb

Sharad Kumar: Ninni

Technical Specifications

Runtime: 188 min

Sound Mix: 6-Track stereophonic (on 70 mm prints)| Mono (on 35 mm prints)|

Color: EastmanColor

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1 (original negative) / 2.20 : 1 (70 mm prints)

Country: India

Language: Hindi

Release Date: 15 August 1975 (India)

Outdoor shooting at: ‘Sippyvaram’/ Ramnagram village on the Mysore-Bangalore highway, Karnataka, India

Songs

All lyrics by Anand Bakshi

All music credited to Rahul Dev Burman

Holi Ke Din Sung byKishore Kumar & Lata Mangeshkar

Jab Tak Hain Jaan Sung byLata Mangeshkar

Koi Haseena Sung byKishore Kumar

Mehbooba O Mehbooba Sung byRahul Dev Burman (based on Demis Roussos’ Say you love me)

Sholay Title Theme

Yeh Dosti (happy version) sung by Kishore Kumar & Manna Dey

Yeh Dosti (Sad Version) Sung by Kishore Kumar

In addition, a qawwali had been recorded (with Anand Bakshi and Bhupendra among the singers) but not used.

See also

70mm films in India/ South Asia which, inter alia, pictorially demonstrates how the film was blown up from 35mm to 70mm.