Can someone imagine a sequel of ‘Sholay’ in contemporary times? Does anyone have the courage to think out-of-the-box instead of dishing out trash in the name of entertainment.
Dear friends, this is the 45th year of the movie that changed the paradigm of Indian cinema. There are umpteen number of stories around the movie itself. Every person you meet has something unique to share about Sholay.
My friend, a cinema critic has defined this movie as a movie in ‘episodes’. Also a point to be noted about the narrative, screenplay, dialogues, direction, etc. is that the movie seems incomplete without any of the characters.
All the characters, scenes, sequences seem imperative unlike contemporary movies where even children find mistakes and there are gross bloopers. Also the high point about the writers is that each character is well defined and has a role to take the narrative ahead.
Most dialogues are so powerful independently or in the narrative that they have become a parlance in the day to day life and below are just a few examples:
| Kitne aadmi the? | we use it even when we come back from a meeting and the boss inquires!! |
| Beta soja nahin toh gabbar aa jayega! | a parent trying to make the child go to sleep |
| Itna sannaata kyon hai bhai? | When we find pin-drop silence at home or workplace |
| Tera naam kya hai… Basanti? | healthy flirting |
| Chal dhanno, basanti ki ijjat ka sawal hai | when one is driving, heading towards a meeting and the signal turns green |
| Aadhe udhar, aadhe udhar baaki ke mere saath!! | fun time while playing games or other entertaining activities |
You see the list is endless and the stories around the story are endless too.
Is there no one who can really take the story forward set in the contemporary times with actors like Amitabh Bachchan still ‘young’ and kicking.
There are umpteen films that have been remade in contemporary times for e.g. Hum Aapke Hai Kaun, I guess is a remake of Nadiya Ke Paar. There are also films that are made with stories moving ahead with time and age of the characters/actors.
We have, for e.g. Top Gun: Maverick been made as a sequel after more than 3 decades, why can’t we take the ‘Sholay’ saga ahead? Probably, considering creating a ‘new back story’ where Jai still remains alive and both the friends move to city, get educated, engaged in some business, successful and are now contemporary citizens. They can probably trouble shoot contemporary issues.
In the current times there are suited-booted entities that are more dreadful than the ‘Dakus’ of those times. The crime scene need not be like the actual, it could be in another serious form and Jai & Veeru can use their intelligence and solve it. Infact Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Kaante’ could be a reference point too.
I’m sure with so much of talent available and now platforms like OTT are available, someone somewhere can imagine taking the story ahead.
