Desi Talk

www.desitalk.com – that’s all you need to know 20 ENTERTAINMENT August 22, 2025 12 Rare Facts That You May Not Know About Sholay O n August 15, 1947, India achieved Indepen- dence. 18 years later, the country’s populace was enslaved by a motion picture experience named Sholay. India’s first film to succeed in the 70mm format, it was its first movie made in Stereophonic Sound and consolidated the multi-star trend set earlier by Roti Kapada Aur Makaan and Deewaar. Produced by G.P. Sippy and directed by Ramesh Sippy, the Salim- Javed-written blockbuster featured Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri (now Bachchan) and Amjad Khan. R.D. Burman scored music and Anand Bakshi wrote the lyrics. Here are 12 rarer facts that you may not know about this film and its team. 1. The film ran for an uninterrupted run of 250 weeks at its main theatre, Minerva, Mumbai, at three shows daily (not the customary four, thanks to its length). But the Current Booking (where tickets are also avail- able at showtime) opened only past the 75th week! 2. The Dharmendra-Hema Malini romance that was brewing (this was their 10th film together since 1970) picked up steam during the simultaneous making of this film and Dharmendra’s home production, Pratig- gya, which released on June 23 that year. The fact that he was in love and married too stressed the actor so much that he began consuming more alcohol. He even decided to ‘punish’ himself and walked from his hotel to the sets of Ramnagram at dead of night! 3. On sets, he would keep doing retakes just to spend more time with Hema Malini. The light boys who controlled the trolleys and reflectors would be bribed with Rs. 100, a great sum in those days for them, with a quiet signal that they could ask for a retake if he touched his nose. Hema Malini revealed in her biography that on some days the light boys became richer by over Rs. 1000! 4. The role of Gabbar Singh was so popular that the entire lead cast—Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan—implored the director to give them that chance. Of them all, only Bachchan was (un)lucky to get that opportunity—in the 2007 fiasco, Ram Gopal Varma Ke Sholay! 5. Dharmendra also revealed in his autobiography (by this writer) that Sholay took major inspiration in theme, characters and execution, from his 1971 blockbuster, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, including the coin used as a decision-maker and naming the amoral villain as Gabbar Singh instead of Jabbar Singh! 6. Sachin, who played a small role in the film, termed the director as his guru and did not accept money. - Continued On Page 22 By RajivVijayakar Salakaar, Sare Jahan Se Accha Both See India Fighting Against A Nuclear Enemy T here seems to be an overdrive in patriotic fare this IndependenceWeek. We had the ludicrousWar 2, the complex Tehran and now two brief (one at five episodes and one at six) very similar-in-concept web series, Salakaar (which means an Advisor) and Sare Jahan Se Accha. Both series are based on Pakistan’s nuclear bomb and its repercussions on India. In both, there is an agent (pos- ing as an office-worker and diplomat respectively) based in Pakistan to stymie their nuclear program. In Salakaar, the story is stretched between 1978 and 2025. In 1978, our intrepid agent manages to add substances in the reactors that make the experiment fail and an explosion destroys their project. In the latter, far more gripping but equally improbable and simplistic series, we see an agent blast the incoming French ship containing the raw materials for the bomb! This, we are told, was also before the timeframe when Pakistan finally became a nuclear power in 1998. Salakaar, on JioHotstar, features Naveen Kasturia as Adhir Dayal, our genius on hostile soil. He is on a personal mission as well, as his adopted sister and fellow worker, Jyoti Chaturvedi (Janhavi Hardas) has been cold- bloodedly murdered by General Zia Ullah’s (Mukesh Rishi as a caricatural version of President Zia-Ul-Haq!) men. In the present, Adhir, having sabotaged Pakistan’s nuclear tests, is now India’s National Security Advisor, portrayed by Purnendu Bhattacharya, and takes a per- sonal interest in rescuing Jyoti’s granddaughter, Shrishti (Mouni Roy), officially teacher and unofficially mistress of Zia’s grandson, Col. Ashfaqullah (Surya Sharma). Shrishti, known to the colonel as Mariam, is on the verge of being wed to the smitten man. Somewhere in the yarn is also a nuclear blueprint that plays a part. This yarn’s fabric (!!!) remains very much in the family. Of course, we have the caricatural Pakistani villains, a sucker local Pakistani sarpanch or village head and the usual coterie of devoted Indians. The director (Faruk Kabir), known for the big-screen middling franchise Khuda Haafiz scales new heights of mediocrities here in both the directorial and script- ing side (with co-writers). We even have a cartoon-like version of Dr. Abdul Kalam (Salim Husen Mulla), who, scientifically and from a remote location in India, guides Adhir in how to destroy Pakistan’s bomb as well as de- fense ambitions. Childish and corny to the extreme, the series is bolstered a wee bit by Purnendu’s dignified and compe- tent turn in his lop-sided character as India’s NSA. The physical atmospherics (the nuclear facility, the streets, the airport in the climax) are quite well-designed but the content, overall, sucks. Also, the writing lacks depth. Themes like patriotism, personal sacrifice and more are superficially touched. Shristhi has AI-laced glasses but there is no hint at how she obtained them. And now for the zinger! Maybe it was supposed to be symbolic, but we have a sequence wherein the 1978 Adhir passes (in the reverse direction) Col. Ashfaqullah’s vehicle with Mariam / Shristhi in 2025!! This is one laughable figuration! And yes, the colonel has no compunction about taking his love to the nuclear site amidst a barrage of men from the army and workforces in an…Ahem!…revealing glam outfit. He could have allowed her to dress suitably after explaining where they were going! Sare Jahan Se Accha (on Netflix), on the other hand, fares better with its layered plot despite the basically fanciful premise again of Indians sabotaging Pakistan’s nuclear tests. This time, the real-life personae shown include Homi Bhabha (Vivek Tandon), R&AW chief, R.N. Kao (Rajat Kapur), Indira Gandhi (Ashwini Akerkar), Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (Hemant Kher) and Henry Kissinger (Scott Alexander Young), former United States Secretary of State. There are better-etched characters, believable emo- tional turmoils (as between ace spy Vishnu Shankar (Pratik Gandhi) and his befuddled wife Mohini (Tilot- tama Shome), Vishnu and the man he has commissioned, Sukhbir (Suhail Nayyar), Pakistani army general Munir Khan (Atul Kumar) and his journalist niece, Fatima (Kriti- ka Kamra), policeman Rizwan and his friend Sukhbir and more. I also liked the layered but not-all-black character of the ruthlessly patriotic Murtuza Malik (Sunny Hin- duja) and his emotional bonding with Brigadier Naushad (Anup Soni). Given the premise again, the story buildup is deft and even if the climax is pretty formulaic, the whole sequence is done well. We are also told, in Vishnu’s simultaneous narration, that being an undercover agent is a faceless and thankless job driven only a man’s passion for his country. Sumit Purohit directs the series ably, and given every- thing, the script is also written and mounted skillfully. Ketan Sodha’s background score works too. Pratik Gandhi is good as Vishnu and Sunny Hinduja is superb as Murtuza. Kritika Kumra is quite endearing and Suhail Nayyar, Tillotama Shome, Rajat Kapoor, Rajesh Khera and Anup Soni are effective. Ninad Kamat is okay, but Kapil Radha as Rizwan is excellent. Ratings: Salakaar—The Legend of an Extraordinary Indian Spy: *1/2 Sare Jahan Se Accha—The Silent Guardians: *** By RajivVijayakar PHOTOS:TrailerVideo Grab Pratik Gandhi and Kritika Kamra in Sare Jahan Se Accha. Naveen Kasturia in Salakaar.