1975 saw India enter a turbulent phase politically, socially and economically with the imposition of Emergency in June ’75 which continued for two years.
While India had come out of a war with Pakistan and helped create the nation of Bangladesh in 1971. While the political events leading up to this started way back in 1967 with efforts to control the judiciary, the student movement, the growing law and order problem in the country and the unseating of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by the courts was the straw that broke the camel’s back and led her to ask the President to declare Emergency.
While political and social turmoil seemed to be the order of the day, the movie’s surprisingly were upbeat and some of India’s greatest blockbusters were released that year.
Deewar
Starting from the iconic and classic Deewar cementing Amitabh Bachchan’s position as one of India’s greatest superstars which released in January that year to Sholay none of the greatest Indian movies of all time and so many others which we shall take a look at as well.
Salim- Javed, Hindi film’s iconic film writers and superstars in their own right had created the Angry young man a few years earlier as a response to the uprising of the common folk to socio economic injustice and rebellion against the system and the tall dark handsome Bachchan with the baritone voice and smoldering eyes fit the bill perfectly.
While Deewar itself was inspired by the classic Ganga Jamuna featuring one of India’s greatest actors Dilip Kumar, they gave it a modern city feel with a likeness of the main character to certain events in the life of the Don Haji Mastan.
Yash Chopra known for his love stories,multi starrers and family dramas was approached to direct this epic which he did after initial misgivings. Earlier star casts considered were Rajesh Khanna and Navin Nischol as Vijay and Ravi respectively but the writers insisted on Amitabh Bachchan and while Shatrughan Sinha was considered briefly for the other role it finally went to Shashi Kapoor. Sinha lost out on the other mega release of that year, Sholay as he was first considered for Amitabh Bachchan’s role but Dharmendra who didn’t know that at the time had recommended Bachchan and history was made.
The dialogues were crisp and cutting, the scenes tight, the action and violence was more in the plot and dialogue than in physically violent scenes and each frame was memorable in its conception and execution. The hard hitting dialogue of Bachchan blended well with Shashi Kapoor’s easy and outgoing manner and some of the scenes featuring the two brothers are landmarks of Indian cinema. The mother played by Nirupa Roy to was depicted as a strong willed woman rather than the typical weepy soft ever pure ever sweet ways mothers were feathered earlier. Praveen Babi as a prostitute playing the anti hero’s love interest was another ground breaking first. Indian movie heroes were always goody two shoes and this was a marked departure.
The dialogues of the film are still remembered and every aspiring actor still enacts at least one scene from the movie either the temple scene or the scene under the bridge when giving an audition.
The temple scene with Bachchan’s soliloquy was the toughest he says he had to do and he requested Yash Chopra time to prepare. Yash Chopra told him to tell his time and call home when he was ready. Amitabh Bachchan took the whole day over ten hours and finally called him at 10pm sayjing he’s was ready to shoot and thus was born of the most powerful scenes in Indian cinema.
When Bachchan signed for the mega blockbuster Sholay he wasn’t a big star. The release of Deewar in January 1975 catapulted him to superstardom and by the time Sholay released in August that year he was already a mega star.
Sholay
Sholay was India’s mega western, larger than life with each character big or small having a really well etched and well written part and dialogues that people remember and quote even today. Sholay has dialogues, metaphors, quotes and similes that can be used in any situation in life and the Sholay repartee by long time fans is a sight to behold.
Directed by a young Ramesh Sippy who went the whole nine yards creating a real village on the outskirts of Bangalore and using a team of action choreographers from Hollywood he Shor the film in 70mm and stereophonic sound giving Indian audiences a quality of cinema they had never seen before.
The writers Salim-Javed had started brief four line narrations back in 1973 and met all the leading directors of the day who refused to take on the project.
The film had many firsts to its credits from the tag line of the greatest star cast ever assembled, to international production quality, 70mm and stereophonic sound to one of the greatest villains ever. Amjad Khan a stellar choice and inspired piece of casting cake into the movie when long time baddie Danny Denzongpa couldn’t take the role as he was shooting for Feroz Khan’s Dhramatma. Amjad Khan changed the look and style of the dacoit that Hindi film audiences were used to seeing and gave Indian cinema its most iconic villain Gabbar Singh. Instead of the traditional bush shirt and dhoti and jooties that dacoits were shown to wear he wore a military green outfit throughout with military boots. His walk, talk and eyes were menacing. He was shown as pure evil with no apologies for being so. He also was not the leery lech when it came to women and there was no untoward incident involving women depicted in the film, which used to be the norm back then. The movie soundtrack was released with a separate LP featuring dialogues from the movie which played at every corner paan shop for years.
The writers were involved in every scene and every character and there was no character too small. Each character was detailed and given memorable lines. The film was gory and violent with lots of humour and sidebars thrown in to lighten the mood. The background music was also brilliant and some of the effects during Amjad Khan’s villainous exploits were eerie and creating to the overall chilling atmosphere like the sound of the swing as the horse ambles in slowly and he rides and shoots a seven year old boy point blank after wiping out his entire family. The other scene where he looks at the ant walking up his arm with such amusement toying with it before finally squashing it depicted his character as much as all the iconic dialogues and action.
Sholay is India’s greatest and most successful film and inspired a generation of filmmakers and story tellers. It ran for over five years in cinemas at a stretch and for a movie that was written off by the critics and considered a flop and failure three weeks after its release suddenly picked up purely by word of mouth when audiences literally came out of the shock to the system they had experienced. No one had ever seen a film quite like it before…
Chupke Chupke
Another masterpiece featuring Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan Sharmila Tagore, Jaya Bhaduri and Om Prakash directed by the great Hrishikesh Mukherjee this light hearted family comedy was the total opposite of Sholay and Deewar as well as the socio political atmosphere of the country. audiences escaped into this world of comic confusion and light hearted banter and the two lead actors were in fine telltale displaying their talent equally in a light film with incredible comic timing as they did in their action roles showing their versatility and talent as artists extraordinaire.
Incidentally the film was shown by doordarshan on the day of the eclipse to keep audiences indoors.
Khel Khel Mein
Featuring Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh the darling of the masses, this couple went on to make many great romantic movies. Rishi Kapoor as the eternal romantic hero held his own against the angry young man and the turbulent times they lived in creating this soft fluffy romantic world of colour and jerseys and wealth and ofcourse nusic. The songs filmed on him were some of the best and khel khel mein has great music, love story and was a thriller to boot.
Dharmatma
The inimitable Feroz Khan’s tske on The Godfather. Feroz Khan was a man with great sense of style. He shot this film in Afghanistan a first for Indian cinema with an ensemble star cast.
Jai Santoshi Ma
The film was true block buster made a fraction of Sholay’s ever expanding budget it made almost the same amount of money. Temples devoted to the hitherto unknown Goddess certainly appeared everywhere with everyone trying to cash in to its popularity. The songs were smash hits and played everywhere. A folk tale style of shooting together with socio narratives of suffering wives experiencing the joy of satisfaction and contentment seems to have struck a chord with millions which baffled movie critics and social observers then.
Women took to the film both in cities and in villages and the film with its message of triumph and victory for women in a male dominated society held its own against the block busters of the day.
Geet Gaata Chal
Another movie whose songs went on to become massive hits, this Rajshri film was blockbuster too. Featuring Sachin who had a small role in Sholay as the lead playing a wandering journeyman who plays the flute and lives free and unattached the film was another family hit from the house of Rajshri Films.
Dharam Karam
The great Raj Kapoor was still doing his thing. Directed by his son Randhir Kapoor this film released on the same year as his son Rishi Kapoor’s Khel Khel Mein and Rafoo Chakkar, Randhir Kapoor’s Ponga Pandit and Lafenge his brother Shashi Kapoor’s Deewar, Chori mera kaam, Sanyasi, Prem Kahani and his very own Do Jasoos with Rajendra Kumar. The Kapoors sure had it good that year.
Warrant
The evergreen Dev Anand has a release too with his ‘discovery’ the sexy Zeenat Aman…
The 70’s was a time for growing up, adolescence, the rebellious teen years, love, energy and hope and the movies and music of the day reflected all that whether it was films , film music or the rock groups and artist from the west who were speaking to and about a generation. Amitabh Bachchan more than anybody contributed and reflected that growing angst, energy, ability to want to take on the system and just be comfortable in being who you are that spoke to generation and made him everybody’s hero.
R.D. Burman was ruling the roost with his music too by then inspiring a generation of musicians with pop and western melodies juxtaposed with Indian folk and classical in the right measure to create hummable tunes.
The 70s was great for Hindi cinema and 1975 was one of its best ever years with films that are still talked about and watched even today…
Ravi Sasan 