Tag Archives: Salim-Javed

40 Years of Sholay: The Film That Redefines Class, Totally

Note-Here’s wishing everyone a very Happy Independence Day. 40 Years ago this day, the iconic Sholay had released. Here’s a personal tribute of sorts to the film,as I reflect back in time over Sholay.

For someone who wasn’t even born when Sholay actually released in India (15th August, 1975), I am proud to say that I’ve seen the film thrice in theatres. Sholay was a film which I kept hearing of when I was growing up, both my parents being ardent fans of the film. Unfortunately by the time I remember frequenting theatres the film had completed its original theatrical run in Chennai or Madras as it was referred to then, the city I belonged to those days. Unfortunately there wasn’t any way to watch the film those days unless there was a re-release in your city (which happened once every few years) as it was yet to be shown on TV and there was no home video (VHS) available of the film back then in the 80’s and early 90’s. Of course things slowly changed in the mid 90’s as the film became a lot more accessible to people, creating a whole new set of fans in the processContinue reading “40 Years of Sholay: The Film That Redefines Class, Totally”

Zanjeer Movie Review : Shamefulness abounds!

Apoorva Lakhia’s Zanjeer. This is one hell of an unintentionally hilarious film. Sample this.

Priyanka Chopra in Zanjeer 20131. Every time Ram Charan’s take on the iconic character of Vijay Khanna goes out to beat some goons, they orchestrate a BG of ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’. Satyagraha much?

2. Vijay gets nightmares of horsemen and people with ‘scary looking’ knives reminding him constantly of a dreaded incident earlier in his life. Some Bhaag Milkha Bhaag? Also, it turns out the ‘dreaded incident’ never involved any horsemen.

3. Priyanka Chopra’s Mala is a police witness in a murder who is given a lot of money to go out and shop when her life is in danger. Also, when does get out of the house, she suddenly discovers an accent, considering she is coming from USA. Not only that, Vijay, who told her to shop, apparently freaks out at her roaming around free.

4. NRI girls from America come to India to dance on cheap innuendo laden songs at their friends weddings in India.Continue reading “Zanjeer Movie Review : Shamefulness abounds!”

Zanjeer (2013) Movie Review: A Legacy Blown to Dust

Zanjeer- Ram CharanDisclaimer– Before I go on to write anything about Zanjeer (2013) I should admit that I wanted to only view this film as a standalone film and not do any comparison whatsoever with the original iconic film made by Prakash Mehra way back in 1973. Continue reading “Zanjeer (2013) Movie Review: A Legacy Blown to Dust”

Zanjeer(2013 Hindi): Official Trailer

Zanjeer is one of the most successful films ever in Bollywood, which gave Bollywood  the Angry Young Man and one of India’s most recognized superstars, Amitabh Bachchan to us.The film earned around 6 crores way back in 1973. Zanjeer was remade in Malayalam as Naayattu with Action Star Jayan reprising the role of Big B,while Tamil Version had MGR, and Telugu version had N.T.R in lead role. Cops are the  flavour of the season with success of Dabbang,Rowdy Rathore and Singham and here’s another film aspiring for the same.Continue reading “Zanjeer(2013 Hindi): Official Trailer”

Deewaar: Rise of the Angry Young Man

In the mid 1970’s India was going through changing times as far as the socio-political scenario was concerned. The days of the emergency which lasted for 21 months only went on to bring in a lot more discontent into the system. The common Indian who till then hardly raised his/her voice now started feeling the suffocation getting a bit too much to handle and the frustration was only creeping in all the more.
We do know that life imitates art and vice versa and cinema is art too. Indian Cinema has also more or less kept in tune with the socio-political happenings in the Country. So no wonder that Bollywood started slowly but surely moving away from the weepy romantics ( handled with ease and elan initially by Rajendra ‘Jubilee’ Kumar and later by Rajesh Khanna ) and light musical entertainers ( no one could get it as good as Shammi Kapoor ) to films reflecting the angst of the common Indian.Continue reading “Deewaar: Rise of the Angry Young Man”

Kaala Patthar : Adaptation of Lord Jim

Joseph Conrad’s novel Lord Jim, first published in 1900, finds a resonance even today; so timeless was his tale. And many a movie has been based on this book, only the setup has changed with the changing times.

It’s a tale of living an ignominious life and how the protagonist redeems himself. Very recently, we saw this theme being played out in Chak De India, with SRK in the lead role. And before that, Abhishek Bachchan in Zameen got an opportunity to re-live the character of Lord Jim.

But many years ago, it was Salim-Javed who brought this fine tale to Yash Chopra, Indiansed it, added the much needed entertainment quotient by introducing new elements into it and roped in Amitabh Bachchan to breathe life into the character.Continue reading “Kaala Patthar : Adaptation of Lord Jim”

Trishul! A High Voltage Drama Par None!

Trishul! 3 years after the record breaking classic that Deewar was, Yash Chopra set out to make another high voltage drama about a son’s vendetta against an errant father. While Deewar was set in the big bad streets of Mumbai, Trishul shifted the location to the plush and sophisticated environment of upper class Delhi.
Like every follow up to a massive hit, this one was grander in scale, bigger in ambition and never really matched the reach of its predecessor. Nobody in their right mind would refer to Trishul as an underrated movie, but, out of Yash Chopra’s biggest hits, this one has hardly been written about by the critics and almost never analyzed. Of course, the following article is not a critical analysis of the movie, but more of a tribute to one of the best dramas ever captured on screen in Indian Cinema. A drama so good it’s been remade in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, revisited as Vijay by Yash Chopra himself, and if rumours are true, it will be remade as Aurangzeb with Prithviraj and Arjun Kapoor.Continue reading “Trishul! A High Voltage Drama Par None!”

Mr India : A Trip Down Memory Lane

Mr.India is one of the first movies I ever saw and still have fond memories about it. And why not? It is so hard to dislike this movie. During the 80’s Bollywood was churning out assembly line products which had a standard template. An idealistic hero in love having a supportive heroine (in all ways) as he clashes with an evil villain and the ever suffering family of its main lead with necessary comic relief and so on.Continue reading “Mr India : A Trip Down Memory Lane”