A couple of years ago, the now ex-police inspector Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar) had arrested two thieves, Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), who he might have respected for their bravery, but could not accept their flouting of the law of the land. However, as he was transporting them across the countryside, their train was attacked by bandits and he was forced to free them on the condition that they would help fending them off, and this they did, managing to succeed against the odds and vanquish the evildoers. They managed to get help for the injured Thakur, and he never forgot this, so now that he needs help once more, he wants to track them down...
Sholay was a Bollywood blockbuster whose appeal still endures to this day, famously breaking records for cinema attendance for the best part of ten years with its mixture of comedy, thrills, tears and songs. For Western viewers unfamiliar with such productions, these crunching gear changes from broad comedy to heart-rending tragedy can be a little bemusing, but as the film is over three hours long you have time to get used to its shifting tones and realise that this is actually very entertaining. Although set in rural, contemporary India (for the seventies), its influences were from farther afield.
This was because Sholay was essentially a western from the East, and you can see what had inspired it in the odd scene or relationship, from the central friendship hailing from the great buddy western, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (there's even a spot of novelty bicycle riding), to the plotline that dominates the second two-thirds straight out of The Magnificent Seven, which itself was drawn from Seven Samurai. Every so often you'll notice a bit of business from the likes of Once Upon a Time in the West - the similarity between this and the Italian spaghetti westerns is notable - but it doesn't take away from the film, if anything it enhances it.
There's an everything except the kitchen sink approach here which sees a diversion in the first hour for a comedy excursion to prison for our two roguish heroes where they plan to secure the reward money for themselves through a deal with the chap who turned them in, and the prison is run, bizarrely, by an officer who proudly proclaims his British Empire training and sports an Adolf Hitler moustache. He is easily outwitted and they escape, but you get the impression the censors wouldn't like to see them unpunished and they are caught again; besides it makes them easier for Thakur to track them down and put them on the case of ruthless bandit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan).
Why doesn't Thakur track him down himself? There is a good reason, but you don't find it out until the halfway mark and this revelation will have you wondering how he hopes to get his revenge once Veeru and Jai manage to capture Gabbar, if indeed they do. Meanwhile, although the duo are not portrayed as utterly bad guys, we do have to see them undergo some kind of reform which happens not only because they're hunting evilddoers, but also because they fall in love. Veeru gets to woo talkative coach driver Basanti (Hema Malini), while the moodier Jai fancies his chances with a young widow with a connection to Thakur. There are many memorable scenes, and one with Basanti forced to dance on glass for the life of Veeru will be familiar to British fans of Rita, Sue and Bob Too, but if it's somewhat exhausting, you cannot say the filmmakers didn't put their all into their work. Music by R.D. Burman.
