Sholay (clip 2) (Ramesh Sippy)

Sholay (clip 2)

Director: Ramesh Sippy

Duration: 00:02:30; Aspect Ratio: 1.222:1; Hue: 70.462; Saturation: 0.112; Lightness: 0.288; Volume: 0.403; Cuts per Minute: 10.395; Words per Minute: 38.781

A clip from Sholay (1975) directed by Ramesh Sippy starring Amitabh Bacchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jaya Bacchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan and others.

Sholay is one of the box office record breaking films of Hindi cinema. As pointed out by Shohini Ghosh, it is in these films that are seemingly mainstream, that queer desires often find a resonance (as in Hum aapke hain kaun). Sholay revolves around the friendship of two men with each other -Jai and Veeru, the women they romance and the revenge drama they enact against the evil henchman Gabbar.

Jai and Veeru's friendship is the heart of the film, and here what are usually romantic devices in Hindi cinema- songs, arguments, declarations of underlying love - are often enacted between the two men as well. In this scene, Jai and Veeru are singing a famous song to each other which is a celebration of their friendship.

An intriguing part of this scene is when they toss a coin to decide which among them will pursue the girl, and the coin lands on its side (neither heads nor tails).

Another song in which again Amitabh Bacchan is the object of affection for a man, is Yaari (Love/friendship) from Zanjeer. As Raja Rao puts in, in his article "Memories Pierce the heart ; Homoeroticism, Bollywood-Style" (Essays On Cinema and Television (Editors - Gayatri; Rao; Wadia; Raman; Arnold; Vasudevan; McLean; Bielby)) -- "..this is where the paradox lies: two men who believe they represent the masculinity principle to the utmost degree find they cannot live without each other; they are happy only when they are together."

Raja Rao's article also draws a valuable link of the "buddy film" genre (to dubiously implant that category from Hollywood to Bollywood) to spectator practices in movie theatres, especially in relation to Bacchan films.

He says .."The bond that Amitabh Bacchan formed with other male actors on the screen, complemented the presence of an all-male audience that had gathered to watch him, engendered a sort of homoeroticism in the dark of the movie hall.
.....
Take a look at the audience as the movie is showing (as I have frequently done), and you are likely to find young men all over each other, clasping hands, putting arms around shoulders and waists, even a leg on a leg. Few of these men might be consciously gay. Nor would they exhibit such behaviour if it were their wives or girlfriends sitting next to them: that would be too black-and-white."

You can read this article online at ..
http://media.opencultures.net/queer/data/indian/homoeroticism-rao.pdf

You can also see another clip from Sholay - Conversation of Jai with Mausi - also available on Pad.ma at
http://pad.ma/LJ/info

This clip is part of the Queering Bollywood database, an exhibition and demonstration of a collection of queer readings of Indian cinema. This open and collaborative database of articles, film clips, magazine stories, etc., has been compiled by Namita Malhotra, Lawrence Liang and many others at Alternative Law Forum and in Bangalore. For more, see http://media.opencultures.net/queer/

Veeru: This friendship we wil never break
we will loose breath (and die)
but will never leave your side
Sholay

Raja Rao's article on homoeroticism in movies and its relation to surreptitious activities in the movie halls says this...
"If Amitabh Bacchan can express undying love for other men on the screen, all in the name of yaari, why can't they indulge in a little mischief?"

Through a first person account, Raja Rao describes homosexual and homosocial activity in movie halls during the 70-80s when a number of action films starring Bacchan were released.
buddy film
coin
friendship
love
motorbike
queer
side car

Jai: This friendship we wil never break
we will loose breath (and die)
but will never leave your side

Alternate translation (from Raja Rao's article)
We won't end this friendship
We shall be together even in death

"At times I went to the movie with a guy I had picked up at a park or public loo, and throughout the movie we merely held hands. At other times I found myself seated next to someone I fancied. As the lights went off, the action began, so to speak, both on the screen and off it. Frequently my victims" readily yielded to my advances. For the next three hours or so, we had a good time, oblivious to the people around us, who thought we were only yaars, for we took care not to unbutton our trousers."

Listen, my friend
Your victory is mine
My loss is yours

Your sorrow is my sorrow
My life is your life

Sometimes if the seats of the back row were full, we discreetly moved to the middle or front of the theatre, where the half-empty seats offered us a measure of privacy. But its not as if it was always I who initiated the action. I distinctly remembered the time, when, half-way through a movie, as I happened to glance at the guy sitting to my left, I found he was aroused, and had gotten his dick out of his trousers for an airing, and was waiting expectantly for me to fondle him. I did, not the type who is accustomed to looking a gift horse in the mouth. Although I personally never went that far, this chap later gave me lurid accounts of men who wanked and sucked each other off in movie halls, all the while the film was on! "

For you I will risk this life
For you I will play with fire
Make enemies of the whole world

This friendship we wil never break
We may loose breath (and die)
but will never leave your side

Raja Rao, "Memories Pierce the heart ; Homoeroticism, Bollywood-Style" (Essays On Cinema and Television (Editors - Gayatri; Rao; Wadia; Raman; Arnold; Vasudevan; McLean; Bielby))
Available online at http://media.opencultures.net/queer/data/indian/homoeroticism-rao.pdf

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