Sholay is not the only celebrated film of 1975

Watching the overdue hype all over, it is strongly felt that Sholay is not the only film that was released in 1975 and got celebrating status. Here is the galaxy of films that stood outstanding along with or besides Sholay.

The 1971-war with Pakistan to liberate BanglaDesh, 1972-severe famine followed by Emergency, had created a volatile atmosphere in the country. It was duly reflected in films too. The emergence of Angry Young Man was clearly the result of the frustrating psyche during the period. And Amitabh Bachchan turned into a superstar instantly. The immediate reflection, after Zanjheer (Prakash Mehra, 1973) was Deewar (Yash Chopra).

Deewar has been the best film of the period it was made in. Rather, it is a strong sociological document of the gloomy period. The transformation of Vijay Varma from a dock worker to the infamous smuggler was inspired by the notorious criminal Haji Mastan. Destiny, luck, values played a great role in the film.

Vijay Varma's fight with the goons was for justice but it also impressed another don who offered Vijay an opportunity for a lucrative career in smuggling. He has to lose his mother and brother for this profession. The police inspector is not prepared to arrest his criminal brother but the poverty-ridden retired teacher offers him the value of honesty. The atheist Vijay quarrels with the God for recovery of his mother's health.

The striking performance of Satyadev Dubey as a dock coolie who refuses extortion money to the goons but eventually gets killed by a speedy truck while protecting his currency notes, went unnoticed.

Also the haunting rendering of Ursula Vaz "I'm falling in love with a stranger" remained underrated. How many people know that R. D. Burman, apart from composing it, was also the lyricist of this wonderful song number. This film, already weak in terms of music, went more down in this respect.

Dharmatma (Feroz Khan), was a loose remake of Hollywood superhit Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972).

Prem Nath played Seth Dharamdas, character based on matka king Ratan Khatri. Reportedly, Prem Nath was paid a whooping price of Rs. 17 lakhs, the highest amount paid to any Hindi film artiste during the period.

With a chain of a dozen-plus murders, Feroz Khan had a tongue-in-cheek presentation and production values. A point cannot be missed here that it was Danny Dengzoppa who was busy playing Jankura, the villain in this film while Ramesh Sippy had substituted Danny with Amjad Khan for Gabbar Singh, the best performance of the new actor.

The year also observed Jai Santoshi Maa (Vijay Sharma) that invented and added another popular Goddess to the mythology. The story and performances (Anita Guha as Maa and Kanan Kaushal as a leading devotee) fascinated the masses. And the music, particularly the song number "mai to aarati utarun re.." reached the top-grosser and celebrated the Sartaj Geet status at Binaca Geetmala then. This low-budget film with lesser paid artistes and other team members (singer - Usha Mangeshkar, lyricist - Kavi Pradeep and lesser known music composer, C. Arjun) was a huge commercial hit.

Aandhi was a strong political drama knitted with a mature love story. Writer Kamaleshwar had scripted the characters of Arati Devi and Chandrasen directly inspired by then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi and Pandit Nehru. It also had a layer of wife and husband's meeting after a long period. Veteran Suchitra Sen impressed with her performance well supported by Sanjieev Kumar and Om Shivpuri. Gulzar directed the film.

Shyam Benegal, after artistic and commercial success of his debut Ankur (1974), presented his another stark film Nishant (Night End). It was a disturbing projection of rural landowners who kidnap a school teacher's wife and keep her. Nishant presented excellent performances by Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi and Girish Karnad. The film bagged the National Film Award for the Best Hindi Film while Bengal Film Journalists' Award went to Shyam Benegal as the Best Director.

Gulzar's another creation during the year was Mausam. Through a love story that fast forwards ahead and back, Gulzar attempted to reflect on the present and past of the characters. While Sanjeev Kumar played the protagonist, Sharmila Tagore presented dual roles successfully and won the National Film Award for best actress. Mausam was adjudged as the second Best Film (national awards) and a number of Filmfare Awards.

The year also witnessed two debutant directors, Dr. Jabbar Patel (Samna) and Dada Kondke (Pandu Hawaldar) in Marathi cinema. Subsequent to superfine proscenium compositions for the Marathi play Ghashiram Kotwal (1972), Dr. Patel presented this strong rural political drama. Samna was based in rural Maharashtra and had a very powerful script by Vijay Tendulkar and intense performances by Nilu Phule and Dr. Shriram Lagoo.

Among other songs, Sanjivani Bidkar's dazzling dance in Peshwa time Lavani ‘Sakhya chala bagamandi’ as well as noir-style picturization of 'sakhya re ghayal me harini' (penned by the veteran Jagadish Khebudkar) with bizarre images remained as one of the highlights of Samna. The film was admired as the third best film of the year by Maharashtra government.

After consecutive three superhit films as the protagonist, Dada Kondke ventured into direction. Pandu Hawaldar was more of a satire on police functioning. The subject-matter irked the censor board and Dada Kondke had to fight a struggle to the CBFC Tribunal that cleared the film for exhibition. On the other side, the Govt. of Maharashtra honoured Pandu Hawaldar as the Best Film in the Marathi film awards of the year. Pandu Hawaldar is a good example of irony that one government set up held it against public exhibition while the other valued it with awards. Ashok Saraf stepped up towards stardom with Pandu Hawaldar and to me, it remains Dada Kondke's best ever film.