starring Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri
directed by Ramesh Sippy
191 minutes
in Hindi with English subtitles
Retired police officer inspector Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar), hires Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), two small-time thieves, to capture and bring to justice Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan), the bandit responsible for killing most of his family and terrorizing Ramgarh, his home village. Veeru falls in love with Basanti (Hema Malini) a local woman who earns a living driving a taxi. Jai falls in love with Radha (Jaya Bhaduri), the widowed daughter-in-law of Inspector Thakur.
There is a slightly longer version of this movie but the version I saw was the shorter one which was the way it was originally released. The longer version is about 10-15 minutes longer and includes some scenes that the censors in India insisted be cut when the movie was initially released.
There are several musical numbers in this movie but I would not call it a musical.
Not all of the special effects were great but some of the stunts in this film looked quite dangerous. I have to wonder if no one was killed or seriously injured during the making of it.
Despite having the same last name there is no indication that Inspector Thakur Baldev Singh and Gabbar Singh are related. I believe that it is just a common last name.
This is a long movie but it was very good. It was no effort at all to watch it all but that said it is worth mentioning that the hunt for Gabbar Singh does not really begin until the second hour of the movie. The first hour of the movie is all about Veeru and Jai getting to Ramgarh and learning to love the town and forget about their thieving ways.
There are elements of the plot that were clearly modeled after The Seven Samurai (1957) but it is in not a remake of that film.
I found the movie to be both melodramatic and moving. It is considered to be the one of the best Indian movies ever made, and possibly the best Indian movie from the 1970s. I haven’t seen very many Indian films but I can see why this one is held in such high regard.
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