Enduring Embers

What has made Sholay infallible in the public imagination? What makes the film tick even after 50 years of its release?

- Nilosree Biswas IS AN AUTHOR, FILMMAKER AND COLUMNIST WHO WRITES ABOUT ASIAN HISTORY, FOOD, CINEMA AND ART

1975 remains a watershed moment in India's political history. At the heart of it lies the Emergency, a post-independence political crisis in the country like no other. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, had applied emergency powers across the country, trampling on democracy, curtailing civil liberties, and censoring the press completely. It was the twenty-eighth year of India's independence, and the nation was already hit by unemployment, inflation and a deep and irrevocable trust deficit towards the system.

Away from the 'political', the Hindi film industry, recognised today as the 'soft power of India', was having its moment, marked by a diverse slate of films that would go on to influence the next decades of storytelling. Some of its memorable classics, including Deewar, Sholay and Aandhi were produced in 1975. Five decades later, Sholay, directed by Ramesh Sippy, holds a pedestalled position in India's otherwise shrunken public memory. From its initial glum reception to the unprecedented frenzy that led to continuous screenings at Mumbai's Minerva cinema for the next five years and at Delhi's Plaza for the next two years, the film sparked a mania hitherto unseen. The only other instance of this level of popularity up until then had been the Ashok Kumar starrer Kismet (1943), which played close to four years at Kolkata's Roxy cinema.

So, what has made Sholay infallible in the public imagination? What makes it tick even today? The most simplistic answer would be—Sholay reflected the then India, and traces of that linger today. The film's 50th birthday is a perfect moment to break it down.