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Join UsStar Cast: Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan nee Bhaduri, Amjad Khan
Director: Ramesh Sippy
What’s Good: Everything
What’s Bad: Opposite word to ‘everything’!
Loo Break: Let’s change that to ‘No Break’!
Watch or Not?: Let’s remove ‘or Not?’!
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 3 hrs 29 Minutes
User Rating:
Need we narrate what Sholay—The Final Cut is about? A film whose Current Booking windows opened in Mumbai well past the 75th week. A film that was screened every single day for over two decades somewhere in the country. A film that can only be called a masterpiece that, like the best wine, has superbly matured in 50 years.
For the neophytes, Sholay—The Final Cut is the tale of an ex-cop, now Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) from the village of Ramgarh (towns of this name exist both in Jammu and Jharkhand, and the first spoof of Sholay was the 1990 B-grade hit, Ramgarh Ke Sholay!), who enlists two crooks and regular jailbirds, Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), to get him alive the dreaded daku, Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). Gabbar has decapitated him and massacred most of his family because Baldev had arrested him and sent him to jail.
Sholay – The Final Cut Movie Review: Script Analysis
To analyze Salim-Javed’s milestone script is as futile as reviewing the quality of the Northern Lights or evaluating the splendor of Srinagar in snowy winter. Each character is meticulously created with seemingly effortless ease, seamlessly fitting into the narrative, and has a specific purpose or role in the grand scheme of things.
Crackling action, intense drama, poignant pathos, rib-tickling comedy, evergreen romance, and breezy camaraderie between Jai and Veeru and Veeru and his love, Basanti, are all established cult aspects in the world of Sholay—The Final Cut, which was created in 1975. As they say, ’Rasoi banat banat ban jaaye’ (great food is cooked naturally, not in a calculated fashion), and this perfect recipe for entertainment just happened.
For example, it is impossible to list the finest supporting characters here: each one is emblazoned within the average Indian psyche, even the smaller ones like Mausi (Leela Misra), Soorma Bhopali (Jagdeep, who later made a film of this name), Samba (MacMohan), or Kaalia (Viju Khote).
It is equally unthinkable to note the film’s specific high points: each one is a textbook in making ageless fare that beats audience demographics as well. The inspirations are there, of course: The Magnificent Seven, The Seven Samurai, and certainly Mera Gaon Mera Desh. The latter includes Lata Mangeshkar, lyricist Anand Bakshi, art director Ram Yedekar, and Dharmendra and character artist Birbal in common credits, plus the villain’s name as Jabbar Singh and Amjad Khan’s real-life father Jayant as Sanjeev Kumar’s counterpart, besides the coin to be tossed! But Sholay—The Final Cut not only grows beyond all inspirations but also does not allow us to remember them!
Salim-Javed’s one-liners and dialogues were, of course, outright iconic winners, but it was the designing of the sequences and the flow that became outstandingly luminescent: note the tanga chase between Basanti and the brigands, the breaking into the Thakur’s safe sequence, the iconic train robbery attempt right at the start, and the way Baldev gets to narrate his past to Jai and Veeru. I would also like to single out the sequence in which Radha (Jaya Bachchan)’s father (Iftekhar) and Baldev (Sanjeev Kumar) discuss the widow’s remarriage to Jai, along with possible repercussions from society.
Yes, commercial elements are added, such as the song sequences (especially “Mehbooba o Mehbooba”) and the comedic jail events (Asrani and Keshto Mukherjee), but they are done so artfully that they become a seamless part of the narrative. Another such sequence is how Imaam Saheb (A.K. Hangal) motivates the villagers even as he grieves himself following the killing of his own son, Ahmed (Sachin).
At this time, we get the film with its original scenes (some were reshot and others removed due to censorship issues during the Emergency), and we see how Ahmed was treated before he was killed. We also see the way Gabbar was eliminated (and not arrested as per what we had been watching until now!) and how Baldev breaks down in a grieving Veeru’s arms. There is also the sequence of the family servant Ramlal (Satyen Kappu) preparing the Thakur’s spiked shoes and the famous ‘James Bond ke pote (James Bond’s grandson)’ remark by Jai. These shifts from the much-loved film have truly ‘enhanced’ the meaning of the term ‘Enhanced Version’!
Sholay – The Final Cut Movie Review: Star Performance
I would like to single out the debonair late Dharmendra here, though each and every performance is masterly. Had it not been for simultaneously released hits like Pratiggya and Chupke Chupke, Dharmendra could have been commercially affected despite his magnificent turn as the complex character of Veeru (he did a potboiler called Veeru Dada in 1990!). After all, Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan had the dominant roles, while Amitabh Bachchan played a nuanced character. But the senior actor was sincere, unruffled, and a complete natural. And for that alone, he stands out!
No one was below par, and Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan, A.K. Hangal, Satyen Kappu, and everyone else were adorably cast and performed superbly.
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Sholay – The Final Cut Movie Review: Direction, Music
But at the end of the day, Sholay—The Final Cut remains a Ramesh Sippy tour de force, with the complete script by Salim-Javed as his mammoth weapon. Since a director and whatever he extracts from his whole team and executes himself comprises the excellence of his work, it was clear blasphemy that he did not receive any awards for this work of art. But as Hindi cinema’s greatest talents say and believe, “The love of the audience is the biggest award of them all!”
R.D. Burman’s music (with Anand Bakshi’s simple yet pithy lyrics) also grew tall with the film, and his background score was innovative. The riff for Gabbar, the haunting notes of the mouth-organ by Jai, and the title music as well are now considered classics, and the restored version has not touched his work, even with a single addition or subtraction.
Sholay – The Final Cut Movie Review: The Last Word
I never thought this would happen—that I would ever get an opportunity to review a film that is a childhood oft-repeated perennial. Just like there is only one sun, there is only one Sholay.
Five stars!
Sholay – The Final Cut Trailer
Sholay – The Final Cut released on 12th December, 2025.
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