MovieChat Forums > Sholay (1975) Discussion > Fascinating character observation...

Fascinating character observation...

posted 17 years ago by philps
10 replies | jump to latest

Has anyone seen both Sholay and The Great Dictator?

I just saw Sholay and am convinced that the Hitler-esque prison warden in the first hour is based on Chaplin's Henkel - at first, he looks, acts and talks like Hitler, then he started caressing a globe in a possible homage to the most famous scene from The Great Dictator. From then I was convinced, as his farcical attitude and comic timing clearly emulated Chaplin, but it seems a strange and obscure reference from the making of modern Bollywood to a landmark in American motion pictures.

Just wondered what anyone else makes of it?

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] nocompassneeded 17 years ago

Yes, it was Chaplinesque and certainly alludes to The Great Dictator. I'd say, however, that the actual exceution of the part plays off of the sort of physicality that Peter Sellers had made famous by that point. It's in a very similar vein. Nonetheless, it's a really funny jab at the penal system and offers such an interesting contrast to the heavy tragedy that soon follows.
The one thing that does sort of bother me about it though is the fact that such a scene totally undercuts the faith in order ad justice that leads Thakur to spare Gabbar's life in the end. Knowing that prison is such a farce and that as a consequence Gabbar has already escaped it once, why would Thakur agree to let him go? Does his noble heart deceive him once again?

[–] TheGautamMathur 17 years ago

actually, the movie was first made with Thakur trampling Gabbar to death. The ending was deemed too gory and then it was reshot with the new ending where the cops take him away. The movie was actually released first with the gory ending, but that was not going down too well, or so people thought at the time.
I have seen both versions, and i prefer the first ending, where Thakur kills Gabbar Singh.
Hope this helps.

[–] its_me_zaz 17 years ago

yeh i agree. the first ending made the film original and went along better with the overall storyline. also with this ending came the scene of thakur and veeru crying on each others shoulders. i think this scene was extremley emotional and moving. two people comforting each other after both losing so much. when they changed the ending to gabbar being arrested the veeru thakur scene disappeared for some weird reason!

(¯`v´¯)
.`·.¸.·´
¸.·´¸.·´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·´thanks for reading!

[–] nocompassneeded 17 years ago

That's interesting. I wasn't aware of an alternate ending. The situation sounds similar to that of "A Clockwork Orange".

[–] shahabalikhan 16 years ago

anyone read anupama chopra's 'the making of sholay'. its a fantastic amazing read! she explains in that,

the original ending was actually taken away because of the Emergency. the then film association (and censors) refused to let a former policeman act in that manner in the film (i mean, killing gabber by trampling him to death). ramesh sippy was very disspointed and deppressed and at one point even contemplated taking his name off the credits. but because of the emergency, the censors had more powers. GP Sippy convinced his son to change the ending finally, and the whole unit went back and shot the sequence with the police arriving.....

i recently saw this original ending. it is sooooooooooo much better! at the end of it all, u see the thakur break down and cry. totally makes sense why sanjeev kumar played the character in the whole movie with so much restraint. it all comes out in the end.

P.S - there are a couple few scenes that were deleted by the sensors too. like the servant ramu hammering the nails into the thakur's shoes. he puts all his hate into each blow, as if he is striking gabber himself.

[–] shahabalikhan 16 years ago

and asrani did take inspiration for his character from that. one of the things he did was, while speaking or giving a speech, his voice and pitch would keep on going higher and higher. this was something that hitler used to do to rouse the crowds in his speeches. chaplin used this technique too in 'great dictator'.

[–] RRHowell41 15 years ago

"it seems a strange and obscure reference from the making of modern Bollywood to a landmark in American motion pictures."

Are you kidding?

Indian movie makers may assume that their audience has seen few Western movies, but to assume that they have not seen, considered and studied Western movies is ludicrous. While I don't think that there are quite as many out and out copies as people claim (there are many--but also, many movies that people claim are "copies" are so different that the complaint seems radically unfair) techniques, scenes, characterizations, etc. are liberally borrowed. I wish and hope that American movie-makers are also paying some attention to the Bollywood scene.

Your phrase "homage to" is a good one, I think, in this case.

[–] notofdisdimention 8 years ago

Actually during those majority of the comedians in Indian bollywood industry were copying Charlie Chaplin, even the great comedians of that generation were inspired. So there is this connection

https://theheartsutrablog.wordpress.com/2015/12/29/being-stupid-and-the-problem-of-not-knowing-this/

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]