Dance on broken glass barefoot? Why, if it will save my hunk of a fiance, of course.

[dangermousie]

I bring you one of my favorite Bollywood scenes and musical numbers. It has everything dangermousie loves. Basanti's (Hema Malini) dance on broken glass to save her man Veeru (Dharmendra) in Sholay (released in 1975, arguably the most famous Bollywood movie ever).

Very briefly summed up, Sholay is a 'curry Western' about two small time criminals, Jai (Amitabh Bachchan in a role that made him a supersuperSUPERstar) and Veeru, hired by a village headman to take out a vicious bandit Gabbar Singh, who has killed the headman's family. (There is a lot more there that this and it's all excellent and makes me laugh and cry but it will suffice for now. Let me just whet your appetite by mentioning that there is a scene of an armless guy killing his enemy with his steel-toed boots).

The set up for the following scene is simple: Veeru has been captured by Gabbar's men and Basanti (who is loud and hyper and pure awesome) is captured as well. As Veeru is bound and helpless (looking very manly and attractive) Gabbar makes a deal with Basanti. As long as she dances, he won't shoot Veeru ('the gun will go off as soon as your feet stop moving'). Heh. So this is where this scene starts. We get broken glass (that Gabbar's men throw under her feet), and fainting, and straining against ropes and artistic shirt tearing. Total crack. One of the coolest bits in the movie. Melodrama, I love you.

I am always amused at the thought that Dharmendra and Hema fell for each other during the movie (didn't he use to pay the crew to do extra takes with her?) and are still together. Super-awwwwwww. Though I do wish they didn't foist their talentless daughter Esha on the movie watching public. Just because your parents are super famous superstars doesn't mean you should be.

fivil (or anyone). I am totally in love with Dharmendra-Hema jodi and I know they made a number of movies together. Which ones are good to rec?

ETA: I saw you uploaded vids from Patthar aur Payal with them and it looks like total fun. What is it about and are the subs/dvd of it OK?

Comments

[janlake83.livejournal.com]

i want to see the rest of that like whoa!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It's available for rent (with subs) from Netflix. I am sure there are places to dl it with subs too, I can ask around where...

[janlake83.livejournal.com]

thanks mousie your the best.. i'll try blockbuster.com and if i can't find it there then i'll look for it... thanks soooooo much

[fivil.livejournal.com]

Mmm, Dharmendra-Hema (both, either) is largely what got me so into 70's Bollywood in the first place. Veeru-Basanti is just legendary (I love their first meeting and Jai's sardonic comments - "What's your name, Basanti?"), and I love the anecdotes about the Sholay shooting, as well. Dharmendra did pay the crew to mess up the scenes he had with Hema, and since Sanjeev Kumar (who played Thakur) had earlier proposed to Hema and she'd turned him down, they avoided having any scenes with Basanti and Thakur both.

You'll be happy to know neither Hema or Dharam are fond of the idea of their daughter acting.

I definitely recommend Seeta aur Geeta, with Hema in a double-role as twins separated at birth. Sanjeev and Dharmendra are the love interests but it's a girl power movie.

Patthar aur Payal was cool, not their best but not their worst, either. I had low expectations as I bought the DVD "blind".. Somebody had recced me a Hema movie called Lal Patthar (Red rock) and I remembered the title wrong and bought Patthar aur Payal (Rock and anklet). But I don't regret the purchase, as the movie was nice masala fun.

Jugnu was cracklicious - Dharmendra plays "Jugnu", a Robin Hood-ish robber who's a master of disguises, who's also Ashok that runs an orphanage (of course!), and Hema plays a girl who runs into both Jugnu and Ashok. It's a total 70's masala cliché fest but entertainingly so and Hema has some really awesome dancing in the songs.

Dream Girl was another role where Hema got to do some ass-kicking, at least partly, though I didn't absolutely love the film. Dillagi was a light, fun romantic comedy where they're both college professors (she teaches chemistry, he Sanskrit - naturally Sanskrit is presented as the language of love).

I'd mostly rec Seeta aur Geeta and Jugnu. SAG has an okay Eros DVD and some DVD by Tiger Entertainment I have with subbed songs. Avoid the Ultra DVD. Jugnu has a Yash Raj DVD. Patthar Aur Payal has an okay Shemaroo DVD.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Jugnu is hard to find but SaG just went to the top of my netflic queue.

Re: Sholay. Jai just owns me. This was my second Amitabh movie (first was the cracky, delicious Amar Akbar Anthony. If you know more ‘separated at birth siblings’ movies which were such a trend back then, please rec). And I fell like a ton of very very big bricks for the snarky, cynical Jai. His largely silent romance with Radha is just…guh. I love Jaya so much and she and Amitabh make such a good on-screen couple (off screen, too, as they produced the hunky Abhishek :D).

I just love the ending scene with the two of them. Because the ending is at best bittersweet: Jai is dead (and he is not just my favorite character, he is closer to Veeru than a brother, they were integral parts of each other’s lives) and Radha’s life is in ruins forever, her new found love and hope lost (I find the final scene of her incredibly poignant). And Thakur achieved his revenge but it won’t get his family back for him. But then Veeru gets on the train, clearly not expecting anything of life and sees Basanti sitting there and the look on his face just kills me I’ve rewound and rewatched that bit a few too many times and they are smiling and then they rush into this hug and eeeee. And maybe things will be OK eventually for some of the characters, after all.

I’ve been rewatching bits of Sholay as you can tell, and seriously, the upcoming remake (moved into urban gangster world) pisses me off to no end. Yeah, Ajay Devgan is HOT and is going to bare yummy skin but the whole idea of this movie is just…RGV is beyond dreadful for doing this (also, stoic, reserved Ajay as the garrulous, dramatic Veeru? Jai I could maybe see. But Veeru? WTF).

You'll be happy to know neither Hema or Dharam are fond of the idea of their daughter acting.

My high opinion of them just went higher.

[fivil.livejournal.com]

I love Sholay for its romantic subplots because they're so minor because it's all about dishoom dishoom action but they're so perfect all the same. The whole widow-in-love was pretty revolutionary back in the day and the AB-Jaya chemistry was spot-on. And in contract, Basanti-Veeru is full of banter and flirting and bickering fun.

I swear I just died when I first finished Sholay - I'd accidentally spoiled myself that Jai would die but the final scene where Radha closes the window, omg. It's such a cruel end for her. I swear, if Sholay was to be ficced, Radha's feelings and pain should be on the shortlist.

Yeah, Ajay could be hot but have you seen the stills? His look is horrible. The "Basanti" in this looks too callous in the remake. Honestly I think RGV just put the name Sholay on his movie to cause a stir - the plot won't probably resemble that of Sholay's too much.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Ajay does look weird.

Re: Radha. I felt the worst for her. She lost her chance at life not once but twice. And Thakur can't even hug her to comfort her...

[morwen_peredhil]

That was PURE CRACKY GOODNESS, and the shirt ripping at the end was the cherry on top. Sigh.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It's like they know what I want and they give it to me.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

I don't know why, but I always had a big fondness for "dancing on broken glass" scenes. There's just something so melodramatic about it.

Thanks for sharing.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I know, it's just so melodrama and I love those :)