Uncut 'Sholay' Gives Fans Closure, Revives Big Screen Magic

By Asim Kamal

New Delhi ~ To watch Gabbar stride menacingly, mouthing“kitne aadmi the”, Jai-Veeru bash up baddies atop a train careening through the countryside and an anguished Thakur's thirst for revenge on a big screen is to revisit the magic of the movies – and of 'Sholay' itself.

The epic Ramesh Sippy film is back. Not on your TV screen but in a hall, where the action unfolds in a darkened auditorium with little to distract. It's an uncut version with scenes not seen before and a different ending where Thakur Baldev Singh, played with great restraint by Sanjeev Kumar, doesn't spare the life of Gabbar Singh, an explosive debut by Amjad Khan, but kills him.

Fifty years after it first released, there is something for everybody. Still. So, a large family group of 15, ranging from 70 to 7, took in the 70 mm experience earlier this week, each enjoying it in their own way. The grandfather reliving once again the theatre experience, the father who had watched it only on the TV screen earlier and the youngster who didn't know what the film was all about but heard about it from his elders.

Every Indian family has their own“Sholay” moment. And this one was clearly no different.

Abhishek Bachchan recently spoke for all millennials when he said it was his lifelong dream to watch“Sholay”, starring his father Amitabh, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, and Amjad Khan, on the big screen.

While the silent generation (born 1928-45), baby boomers (1946-64) and the generation X (1965-1980) got the chance to watch it in theatres and witnessed the“Sholay” mania unfold, millennials only grew up hearing stories about the film and saw it repeatedly on TV/VHS/DVD.

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