Page 32 - Seniorstoday Sep 2024 Issue

written in the simple Hindi of the streets, sharp writing.
still carried the dramatic power to enhance The two, who had done their share of
the scene. “Yeh police station hai tumhare ghost-writing before they hit a winning
baap ka ghar nahin hai,” spoken by the streak, were stung by the fact that writers
police inspector Vijay in Zanjeer, as he did not get due credit in a film. When
kicks the chair on which the cocky Pathan posters and hoardings of Zanjeer were put
criminal is about to sit uninvited, was a up, they hired a painter to stamp ‘Written
moment that inspired thrill and awe. by Salim-Javed’ on them. It was just the
beginning of a fabulous career, in which
their names were printed at the top of
posters. A film written by the duo was, to
Image courtesy: gemsofbollywood.com more than the star of the film—Amitabh
the industry, a guarantee of a hit. At one
point, they demanded and got one lakh

Bachchan—and this is something that
never happened before and will never
happen again, when writers are valued
more than stars.

Prakash Mehra had approached every
major star of that time to play the cop
haunted by the murder of his parents, and
searching for the man whose face he did
not see, with the desire for revenge. Vijay
had no songs in the film, which was the
main factor for stars like Dev Anand and
Shammi Kapoor to turn it down—Salim-
Javed did not want to dilute their solemn
protagonist by making him break into
song. His romance with the street-smart
knife sharpener (Jaya Bhaduri) was also
understated. Pran as the Pathan Sher
Khan—who reforms and becomes Vijay’s
ally—gave his career a new direction.
And Mala, as played by Jaya, was shown
to be an independent and courageous
young woman, who witnesses a crime and
speaks up, after the harrowing scene in The mainstream masterpiece, Sholay,
the morgue, where Vijay shows her the directed by Ramesh Sippy, owed its origins
corpses of dead children. Ajit, playing the to Japanese master Akira Kurosawa’s
villain Teja, and Bindu as Mona the moll, Seven Samurai, but after Salim-Javed had
became memorable too, with Salim-Javed’s Indianised it to the fictional Ramgarh,

32