The Adaptive SHOLAY

#BollywoodHollywood

Episode 2

Today would like to move on to the 70s.

A Movie which was talked about after this series debuted

SHOLAY

Before going in to this let me share you some Trivia

Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971)

Khote Sikkay ( 1974 )

Pratigya ( 1975 )

Sholay ( 1975 )

The premises of these films is same.

It is quoted that MGMD is the germ of Sholay. However looking closely we will see that Pratigya is more so based on Mera Gaon Mera Desh .

Khote Sikkay and Sholay have a similaSikkey.

Both inspired by the Western genre, complete with horses and ponchos. It has a similar plot to Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai as well as The Magnificent Seven, while Feroz Khan's character is similar to the "Man with No Name" stock characters in Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy

( Gabbar, Jabbar, Jagga)

Now it is a known fact that The Magnificent Seven is an official Adaptation of The Seven Samurai

There are 7 protagonists.

In Khote Sikkay they are five and in Sholay Two.

Later Adaptations include

Aandhi Toofan 1985 ( Two Protagonists)

Karma 1986 ( Three Protagonists )

Army 1996 (Five Protagonists)

China Gate 1998 ( Nine )

So on Seven Samurai / Magnificent Seven there are 6 popular movies and many more.

So coming to the point the Wild Western theme of a team or group coming together to save a village / town.

Seven Samurai:

This is a Japanese film ( not Hollywood for the Technically Specific).It is not easy to say anything new about the one of the most analyzed and scrutinized movies of the film history. Nevertheless, and despite being eventually only repeated, it shall be mentioned that movie has a simple but very engaging story - a group of peasants, representing a village, periodically stormed by gang of bandits, looting their crops and other possessions, hires a veteran samurai, who gathers six samurais to protect a village from the cruel bandits. As the samurais teach the natives how to defend themselves, the village is attacked by a pack of 40 bandits to help them protect the village.

The Official Remake of this film was 

The Magnificent Seven (1960 & remade in 2016.

A gang of bandits led by Calvera (Eli Wallach) periodically raids a poor Mexican village for food and supplies. After the latest raid, during which Calvera kills a villager, the village leaders decide they have had enough.They approch Chris Adams (Yul Brynner), a veteran Cajun gunslinger, for advice. Chris suggests they instead hire gunfighters to defend the village, as "men are cheaper than guns." At first agreeing only to help them recruit men, Chris eventually decides to lead the group. Despite the meager pay offered, he finds five willing gunmen. They are the gunfighter Vin Tanner (Steve McQueen), who has gone broke after a round of gambling and resists local efforts to recruit him as a store clerk; Chris's friend Harry Luck (Brad Dexter), who assumes Chris is hiding a much bigger reward for the work; the Irish Mexican Bernardo O'Reilly (Charles Bronson), who has fallen on hard times; Britt (James Coburn), an expert in both knife and gun who joins purely for the challenge involved; and the dapper, on-the-run gunman Lee (Robert Vaughn), plagued by nightmares of fallen enemies and haunted that he has lost his nerve for battle. On their way to the village, they are trailed by the hotheaded Chico (Horst Buchholz), an aspiring gunfighter whose previous attempts to join Chris had been spurned. Impressed by his persistence, Chris invites him into the group. 

They save the village but not before 4 of them perish .

As the surviving three ride out they say..the farmers won we lost.

Now if I analyse all the Bollywood remakes..this will go on.

The story of SHOLAY is folklore as also the other films mentioned.

In each version of this story, many of the details have been changed — the location, the particulars of the villain’s plot, the mix of characters who make up the team of protectors — but the bones remain the same: A bad guy threatens a small town; the villagers hire a wandering protector who gathers a motley crew of fighters; the fighters fortify the town; there’s a protracted assault; some of the fighters die; the village is saved.

In SHOLAY this is limited to Two.

So it won't be wrong to say that SHOLAY finds inspiration from these classics.

In the age of franchise sprawl, where movies must juggle stories and subplots that cross over multiple films and where filmmakers are always trying to stay one step ahead of online fans with shocking plot developments, that’s an art that’s largely disappeared. But the timelessness and influence of Seven Samurai , Magnificent Seven and Sholay is a reminder that simple stories haven’t lost their power or relevance: Sometimes the most satisfying stories are the ones that don’t surprise you at all.

Hope this comparison of Adaptations works and is likes by the followers and Critics of SHOLAY.