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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.)

Raj Thackeray’s Political Dance

Raj Thackeray

With Maharashtra’s Assembly elections looming, a political shuffle is taking shape in Mumbai. At a high-profile meeting held in a five-star Mumbai hotel on Monday, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reportedly held a closed-door discussion with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, reportedly over seat-sharing arrangements in key constituencies like Shivdi, Worli and Mahim.


Despite unconditionally backing the Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha election, Raj had recently announced the MNS would contest the Assembly election on its own. However, there appears to be a tacit understanding that the Mahayuti parties, especially the Shiv Sena led by chief minister Eknath Shinde and the BJP, would be strategically backing the MNS candidates in key Mumbai seats to defeat the rival Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray, Raj’s estranged cousin.


Raj’s son, Amit Thackeray, is expected to make his political debut in Mahim, a constituency contested by MNS leader Nitin Sardesai in the past. One of Mahim’s neighbouring constituencies is Worli, where Uddhav’s son, Aaditya Thackeray, is expected to defend his seat. In September, Raj had held a rally in Worli, where he tried to rouse nativist sentiments by calling on the ‘sons of the soil’ to stand up for their fundamental rights.The rally had coincided with the unveiling of the MNS’s ‘Vision Worli’ a strategic move to ostensibly counter Aaditya Thackeray’s programme.


By supporting Raj indirectly, the Mahayuti hopes (as it always has) to use MNS as a tool to split the Marathi vote and weaken Uddhav’s Shiv Sena (UBT). 


Despite the MNS not having a single MLA or MP across Maharashtra, the BJP has always hoped to make use of Raj’s still extant Marathi-speaking vote-bank not just in Mumbai, but in Thane and Nashik to challenge the Sena (UBT) in wake of Muslim, Christian and Dalit voters gravitating towards Uddhav Thackeray since the latter’s alliance with the Congress and Sharad Pawar.


The MNS’ twin debacles in the 2014 parliamentary and Assembly elections left the party in utter disarray, with the slide continuing through the 2017 civic election as well as the 2019 State and national elections. Following its rout in the 2019 Assembly election, an atrophied MNS had changed its ideological direction from its nativist stance by veering towards Hindutva politics.


The MNS’ about-turns have compounded its woes. In 2014, Raj endorsed Prime Minister Modi, only to campaign fervently against him in the 2019 general elections, aligning himself with the NCP. Ahead of the Lok Sabha, he returned to giving unconditional support to Modi by campaigning for the Mahayuti. His constant political oscillations have caused confusion within his ranks.


That said, for Shinde and the BJP, having a Thackeray on their side, even tacitly, offers a symbolic boost in their battle with Uddhav for the supremacy of Mumbai.

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