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By:

Rajeev Puri

24 October 2024 at 5:11:37 am

Before Sholay, there was Mera Gaon Mera Desh

When the comedian and television host Kapil Sharma recently welcomed the veteran screenwriter Salim Khan onto his show, he made a striking claim. India, he joked, has a national bird and a national animal; it ought also to have a national film. That film, he suggested, would surely be Sholay. Few would quarrel with the sentiment. Released in 1975 and directed by Ramesh Sippy,  Sholay  has long been treated as the Everest of Hindi popular cinema -quoted endlessly, revisited by generations and...

Before Sholay, there was Mera Gaon Mera Desh

When the comedian and television host Kapil Sharma recently welcomed the veteran screenwriter Salim Khan onto his show, he made a striking claim. India, he joked, has a national bird and a national animal; it ought also to have a national film. That film, he suggested, would surely be Sholay. Few would quarrel with the sentiment. Released in 1975 and directed by Ramesh Sippy,  Sholay  has long been treated as the Everest of Hindi popular cinema -quoted endlessly, revisited by generations and dissected by critics. In 2025, the film marked its 50th anniversary, and the release of a digitally restored, uncut version introduced the classic to a new generation of viewers who discovered that its mixture of revenge drama, western pastiche and buddy comedy remains curiously durable. The film’s influences have been debated almost as much as its dialogues – from scenes taken by the Spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, particularly ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ (1968) or to the narrative architecture of ‘Seven Samurai’ (1954) by Akira Kurosawa. Others note echoes of earlier Hindi films about bandits and frontier justice, such as ‘Khotey Sikke’ (1973) starring Feroz Khan. Yet, rewatching ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh,’ directed by Raj Khosla, one cannot help noticing how many of the narrative bones of  Sholay  appear to have been assembled there first. Released in 1971,  Mera Gaon Mera Desh  was a major hit at the box office, notable for holding its own in a year dominated by the near-hysterical popularity of Rajesh Khanna. The thematic framework of the two films is strikingly similar. In  Sholay , the retired policeman Thakur Baldev Singh recruits two petty criminals - Jai and Veeru - to help him avenge the terror inflicted upon his village by the bandit Gabbar Singh. In  Mera Gaon Mera Desh , the set-up is not very different. A retired soldier, Jaswant Singh, seeks to protect his village from a ruthless dacoit and enlists the help of a small-time crook named Ajit. Even the villain’s name seems to echo across the two films. In Khosla’s drama, the marauding bandit played by Vinod Khanna is scene-stealing performance is called Jabbar Singh. In  Sholay , the outlaw who would become one of Indian cinema’s most memorable antagonists was Gabbar Singh. There is an additional irony in the casting. In  Mera Gaon Mera Desh , the retired soldier Jaswant Singh is played by Jayant - the real-life father of Amjad Khan, who would later immortalise Gabbar Singh in  Sholay . The connective tissue between the two films becomes even clearer in the presence of Dharmendra. In Khosla’s film he plays Ajit, a charming rogue who gradually redeems himself while defending the village. Four years later, Dharmendra returned in  Sholay  as Veeru, a similarly exuberant petty criminal whose courage and irrepressible humour make him one half of Hindi cinema’s most beloved buddy duo alongside Amitabh Bachchan as Jai. Certain visual motifs also appear to have travelled intact. In Khosla’s film, Ajit finds himself bound in ropes in the bandit’s den during a dramatic musical sequence. A similar image appears in  Sholay , where Veeru is tied up before Gabbar Singh while Basanti performs the now famous song ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan.’ Other echoes are subtler but just as suggestive. Ajit’s pursuit of the village belle Anju, played by Asha Parekh, anticipates Veeru’s boisterous attempts to woo Basanti, portrayed by Hema Malini. Scenes in which Ajit teaches Anju to shoot recall the flirtatious gun-training sequence between Veeru and Basanti that became one of  Sholay ’s most cherished moments. Even the famous coin motif has a precedent. Ajit frequently tosses a coin to make decisions - a flourish that would later appear in  Sholay , where Jai’s coin toss becomes a running gag. Perhaps most intriguingly, the endings of the two films converge in their original form. In  Mera Gaon Mera Desh , the villain is ultimately killed by the hero. The uncut version of  Sholay  reportedly ended in a similar fashion, with Gabbar Singh meeting his death at the hands of Thakur Baldev Singh. However, censors altered the climax before the film’s 1975 release, requiring that Gabbar be handed over to the police instead. All this does not diminish  Sholay . Rather, it highlights the alchemy through which cinema evolves. The scriptwriting duo Salim–Javed took familiar ingredients and expanded them into a grander narrative populated by unforgettable characters and stylised action. On the 55 th  anniversary of  Mera Gaon Mera Desh , Raj Khosla’s rugged western deserves a renewed glance as the sturdy foundation on which a legend called  Sholay  was built. (The author is a political commentator and a global affairs observer. Views personal.)

Post-surgery, Nagpur youth can breathe, eat after 2 years

Mumbai: Over two years ago, a young boy met with a serious accident after his motorcycle crashed into a truck carrying bamboo, critically injuring him and fighting for life.


A bamboo dislodged from the truck and pierced through the neck of the 18-year-old Tauhid Khan, son of a labourer, damaging his wind-pipe and food-pipe, so Tauhid could not breathe, swallow or eat, with life becoming an unending struggle.


After doing the rounds of several hospitals across the state, he somehow reached Mumbai’s Zen Multi-Speciality Hospital, Chembur and was taken under the charge of a team comprising Dr. Roy Patankar, Dr. Tanveer Majid, Dr. Pramod Kale and Dr. Vikas Nair.


The multiple failed treatments resulted in severe life-threatening complications, his weight dropped from 60 kgs to 33 kgs, his lungs got badly infected due to saliva accumulation and leakage, etc.


Food-pipe punctured

The crash had punctured Tauhid’s esophagus (food-pipe), which led to an infection (empyema) in the right lung, and an earlier team performed surgery to close the food-pipe and even inserted an endoscopic stent to prevent leakages.


Things turned critical when an abnormal connection formed between the food-pipe and windpipe, saliva leaked into the lungs, he couldn’t breathe normally and coughed relentlessly.


Despite placing a chest-tube, there was no improvement and for a year (2023) forcing Tauhid to keep a spittoon (plastic cup) to collect saliva from the mouth as he couldn’t swallow it.


His family brought him to the Zen MSH in Oct. 2024 in dire straits, dangerously low weight, severe sepsis infection throughout the body, extremely poor lung condition and weakness – he could barely walk a few steps.


Dr. Patankar explained that there were major problems affecting Tauhid’s health, so they placed a feeding tube in his small intestine (jejunostomy) to boost his nutrition, and in six months, his weight increased from 33 kgs to 40 kgs.


Tauhid was readied for the surgery by March and earlier this month, he was wheeled into the operation theatre for a complex 8-hour surgery to successfully repair the holes in the food-pipe and wind-pipe, the doctors carefully closed the openings in the trachea and esophagus.


The doctors also detached a large neck muscle called sternocleidomastoid, placed it be between the food-pipe and wind-pipe and it will act as a protective barrier to prevent future infections, and the technique is known as ‘muscular flap procedure’, while preserving all the major blood vessels in the neck.


“After the surgery two weeks ago, Tauhid was put on a ventilator to stabilize. He is now discharged as he is able to eat food normally, later the feeding tube in the intestine will be removed and he will begin consuming solid foods too, plus gain weight,” said Dr. Patankar, on the entire surgery performed free of cost for the patient hailing from an economically weak background.


A delighted Naseem Khan recalled how his son Tauhid would cry as he could not eat, and all felt tense but helpless, but finally the family’s perseverance and the medical team’s dedication paid off.


“The medical team of Dr. Patankar, Dr. Majid, Dr. Kale, Dr. Nair and others have given Tauhid the gift of a new life.  We cannot thank them enough and it’s the greatest happiness for us, after witnessing his trauma for over two years,” said Naseem Khan.


A smiling Tauhid, now 20, said he was scheduled to write his crucial HSC exams in Feb. 2023 - just two months after the devastating road-crash, but he had to take a drop.


“I was on the verge of giving up but the Zen MSH doctors supported and also fought for me… Now, I can speak, eat, walk, am regaining my strength and look forward to enjoying life to the fullest,” said Tauhid, raring to resume his college education.

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