6 recensioni
"Sholay" directed by Ramesh Sippy is a western-action film from India and regarded as one of the most essential films to have come out the Bollywood industry. The film revolves around a police officer whose family is murdered by a gangster, who then hires some hitmen to avenge the gangster.
I was not impressed with the film. It had a decent script by Salim-Javed, but overall mediocre performances around the entire cast, except for the convincing Sanjeev Kumar's potrayal of Thakur Baldev Singh.
"Sholay" was clearly amibitious for 1975, but has major staging problems in executing its action sequences, resulting in a range of horrible stunt scenes. On top of that, I thought it was marked by sloppy direction, in that the quite simple plot was layed out in approximately three and a half hours. In spite of the obvious shortcomings of being a great film, I thought it had several qualities.
For one thing, it had a believable antagonist - Gabbar, and in particular protagonist, Thakur. Apart from this, a big quality to the film is its cinematography - the DP utilizes nice pans and wide-shots, as well as interesting close-ups, clearly inspired by the cinematographic style of Sergio Leone. Also, I found the score to be quite nice in certain parts.
I had a reasonable amount of fun watching it, but to me, it was at least one hour too long. I can appreciate that "Sholay" is surrounded by nostalgia to domestic Indian audiences, but I was not impressed in spite of its reverred status as a masterpiece. Perhaps though, it is just that by Bollywood standards.
I was not impressed with the film. It had a decent script by Salim-Javed, but overall mediocre performances around the entire cast, except for the convincing Sanjeev Kumar's potrayal of Thakur Baldev Singh.
"Sholay" was clearly amibitious for 1975, but has major staging problems in executing its action sequences, resulting in a range of horrible stunt scenes. On top of that, I thought it was marked by sloppy direction, in that the quite simple plot was layed out in approximately three and a half hours. In spite of the obvious shortcomings of being a great film, I thought it had several qualities.
For one thing, it had a believable antagonist - Gabbar, and in particular protagonist, Thakur. Apart from this, a big quality to the film is its cinematography - the DP utilizes nice pans and wide-shots, as well as interesting close-ups, clearly inspired by the cinematographic style of Sergio Leone. Also, I found the score to be quite nice in certain parts.
I had a reasonable amount of fun watching it, but to me, it was at least one hour too long. I can appreciate that "Sholay" is surrounded by nostalgia to domestic Indian audiences, but I was not impressed in spite of its reverred status as a masterpiece. Perhaps though, it is just that by Bollywood standards.
In spite of initial negative reviews, Sholay became, thanks to word of mouth, a huge hit and an acknowledged classic. It is also, by Western standards, a bit of a mess, and something that would be a better movie with an hour chopped out.
The movie is shot like a western (although in spite of initial impressions it's not a period piece) and is gorgeously scenic. The opening train action sequence is good, though not great, and it illustrates an issue seen throughout the movie: it's clear no fist ever comes close to a face and the fighting has an over-choreographed look that makes it unconvincing.
This is followed by the film's nadir, a painfully unfunny "comic" sequence about a prison martinet with a Hitler mustache. Not only is it the worst part of the movie, but it's also completely unnecessary; it adds nothing to the movie. Then there's a musical number. This seems odd, but it turns out Sholay is a western-musical-action picture. Go figure.
If you can make it that far (about 45 minutes in) then things pick up with a talkative horse-cart driver whose amusing, narcissistic chattering proves that the movie can be funny if it tries.
Sholay has the look of a 50s-era western, but it also has the darkness that moved into cinema in the 60s and 70s. The most effective movies are its darkest, and once the film shows that side (towards the middle), the action, broad comedy, suspense, romance, drama, and even dancing, work pretty well.
Like the Seven Samurai, Sholay is about heroes protecting a village from bandits, but unlike the Kurosawa film, these heroes have no sense of strategy. It is amazing how it never occurs to anyone in the film to take any precautions or even consider for a moment that being surrounded by bandits probably makes a lot of things dangerous.
In spite of a few grim moments, overall Sholay is your basic popcorn flick, and something I probably would have enjoyed more when I was 14 watching a Saturday afternoon movie marathon. 3 1/2 hours long and crossing genres willy-nilly, Sholay really *is* a movie marathon.
Cut a few scenes out and trim pretty much everything that's left and Sholay would be a much better movie. As it is, it's a bit of a curio that I can't quite recommend.
The movie is shot like a western (although in spite of initial impressions it's not a period piece) and is gorgeously scenic. The opening train action sequence is good, though not great, and it illustrates an issue seen throughout the movie: it's clear no fist ever comes close to a face and the fighting has an over-choreographed look that makes it unconvincing.
This is followed by the film's nadir, a painfully unfunny "comic" sequence about a prison martinet with a Hitler mustache. Not only is it the worst part of the movie, but it's also completely unnecessary; it adds nothing to the movie. Then there's a musical number. This seems odd, but it turns out Sholay is a western-musical-action picture. Go figure.
If you can make it that far (about 45 minutes in) then things pick up with a talkative horse-cart driver whose amusing, narcissistic chattering proves that the movie can be funny if it tries.
Sholay has the look of a 50s-era western, but it also has the darkness that moved into cinema in the 60s and 70s. The most effective movies are its darkest, and once the film shows that side (towards the middle), the action, broad comedy, suspense, romance, drama, and even dancing, work pretty well.
Like the Seven Samurai, Sholay is about heroes protecting a village from bandits, but unlike the Kurosawa film, these heroes have no sense of strategy. It is amazing how it never occurs to anyone in the film to take any precautions or even consider for a moment that being surrounded by bandits probably makes a lot of things dangerous.
In spite of a few grim moments, overall Sholay is your basic popcorn flick, and something I probably would have enjoyed more when I was 14 watching a Saturday afternoon movie marathon. 3 1/2 hours long and crossing genres willy-nilly, Sholay really *is* a movie marathon.
Cut a few scenes out and trim pretty much everything that's left and Sholay would be a much better movie. As it is, it's a bit of a curio that I can't quite recommend.
- classicsoncall
- 14 nov 2017
- Permalink
This movie is in essence a well crafted film. Camera-work and sound recordings are superb. However, the storyline could be drafted much more to the point. To value this movie I made my own version by cutting out 70 minutes of unnecessary side and back stories which makes this movie tedious and boring.
My cut is a 135 (instead of 204) minutes movie, full of action with increased pace. I deleted the songs "Ye Dosti" "Holi Ke din" "Koi Haseena", the background story of Jaya Bahaduri, the Asrani sequence in jail and Mausi's approval for having Veeru engaged to Basanti.
Gabber Singh is performing breadth taking and the action scenes are very raw. This rawness is the real beauty of the movie.
My cut is a 135 (instead of 204) minutes movie, full of action with increased pace. I deleted the songs "Ye Dosti" "Holi Ke din" "Koi Haseena", the background story of Jaya Bahaduri, the Asrani sequence in jail and Mausi's approval for having Veeru engaged to Basanti.
Gabber Singh is performing breadth taking and the action scenes are very raw. This rawness is the real beauty of the movie.
- silvan-desouza
- 18 ago 2014
- Permalink