Sholay: The Final Cut (2025) – An Experience

Genre:   Classic

Platform: Theatrical release

Length – 3 hours +

Director:  Ramesh Sippy

 Plot:  A Village head engages two mercenaries to take on a dreaded dacoit.

Director and actor Shekhar Kapur once said that “the film industry can be divided into two phases: Before Sholay and After Sholay”. Anyway one looks at it , the statement is true. Lets look at “Before”

The Indianisation of what is essentially The Seven Samurai – mercenaries being hired to fight a dreaded dacoit (and his gang) – has been done before and strangely no one ever thought to look at the two mainstream films that did so.

Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971) was clearly inspired by the same story but had “one Samurai” . Petty thief cum layabout Ajit (Dharmendra) is reformed by ex Army man Jawsant (Jayant) and helps him to fight the dreaded dacoit Jabbar (Vinod Khanna). Raj Khosla’s film was filled with all his standard trademarks including some great songs and unusually three songs for the vamp Munnibai (Laxmi Chaya) who flirts between siding with Ajit and Jabbar and predictably pays the price for taking Ajit’s side. Shot in and around Udaipur, the story set in the rugged locations enthralled the audience as the petty thief finally turned into the village’s saviour and its protector, as he too feels he is part of it.

Khotey Sikkey (1974) was a far more “true” adaptation of The Seven Samurai as it had five city criminals being convinced to protect a village from a dreaded dacoit Janga. The twist was there was a nameless mysterious stranger who rode a white horse and also helped the city criminals. Janga was no less cruel and his death was brutal – at the hands of the mysterious stranger. The net result was a mix of The Seven Samurai and For a Few Dollars More , especially the gimmick of the musical watch deciding how much time was left for a man to live. What was unique was the five criminals turned samurai were played by onscreen villains while the main villain Janga was played by character actor Ajit. In this mix was a dancing girl, the local villagers, the girlfriend of one of the samurai who follows him to the village and fights galore.

So what is about Sholay that made it run for five years in Minerva theatre at Lamington Road, Bombay? After all it was the same story but with two “Samurai”. Was it the recreation of an entire village on the outskirts of Bangalore, dubbed Sippy Nagar, which is now derelict while the local rock formations that formed Gabbar Singh’s den is still intact? Is it some kind of oblique natural acknowledgement of the fact that the evil’s lair is more attractive than the homes of the “good”? After all , Gabbar’s dialogues became more famous than those of the other characters.

While watching it yesterday on its re-release, Kitney Aadmi they had the audience hooting, clapping and repeating each and every line of Gabbar in the scene that ends with him shooting dead the trio who returned empty handed from the village.  Watching the final cut in theaters seemed like a communal experience of years gone by , somewhat akin to sitting in someone else’s living room while watching Sunday movies or chaya geet on someone else’s Black and white TV. When the original fim was released , TV had just arrived in Bombay (1974) and yet had not penetrated into every home as would happen in a decade or two.  Thus word of mouth was very strong and it is probably this that helped the film to attain the kind of cult status that it has achieved since its original release fifty years ago.

Yesterday’s audience was a mix of the young and the grey haired “old” folks. Fifty percent seemed to be the ‘old” people who were probably teenagers or in their early 20s when the film was released. At the film’s end when I called out aloud as to how many times they had watched it , the audience replies ranged from “10”, “26”, “multiple”, “countless times” and so on.

Let us not forget that it was written off by the critics as “currey western”, “too violent” and so on. Despite the adverse critical reviews, word of mouth picked up , especially the fascination with “pure evil” that was Gabbar Singh, played by Amjad Khan who was “introduced” in this film. Chetan Anand’s war film Hindustan ki kasam (1974) had already been released with Amjad Khan as a Pakistani Air Force officer but due to the delayed vagaries of production, his “introduction” was in this film.

A large part of the legendary status of the film is due to its dialogues that have one punch line after another by Salim Javed. We cant separate the writing , from the actors, or from the overall direction. This was a case of everything coming together.

As one ex colleague said “Sholay ban gayee. Ab nahi ban sakti”.

Couple of words more on The Final Cut.

This ending, the actual “original” ending, is more true to life and overall plot. (The original release’s revised end with the police coming in at the last moment to capture Gabbar always stank and seemed a compromise). Sanjeev Kumar’s final silent breakdown is a brilliant exercise in acting. Gabbar is dead. So Now Thakur’s purpose in life is over. What else can he do ? All conveyed in that bitter silent weeping.

Sound: Something was not okay. Having watched it multiple times in the past and on VCD/ DVD and online on You Tube, the background music / sounds don’t seem to be mixed properly. The eerie dog like wail when Gabbar is delivering his monologue is inaudible. Similar experience in the ‘tonga chase’ when Basanti’s tonga is chased by four dacoits – the mix of tabla, horns, violin section was perfect in the original movie while in this print, the tabla rhythm seems to be muted. So too in some of the song and action scenes.

The film hasn’t lost any of its immersive power and is as entertaining , engaging and absorbing as it was fifty years ago.

Why ?

Because a CLASSIC IS FOREVER