Ab Aayega Mazaa: The Fun Sholay Quiz

Best Actor, Best Screenplay. Best Dialogue. Best Direction, Best Music Direction, Best Background Music. Best Debut. Best Editing. Sholay deserved and should have won all these Filmfare awards. But it won only one of these. Which well-deserved award?

By Uttara and Sudarshan Shidore

To mark 50 years of the greatest entertainer, blockbuster, and the most successful Hindi film ever made, here's a quiz on the film, designed by Uttara and Sudarshan Shidore. You will notice that some of these questions have multiple choice and others don't.

While you read the quiz, you will know why. Attempt the quiz for fun. If you google, you are doing yourself and the film a serious disservice. Online search karoge to isskee sazaa milegi. Barabar milegi! Arey O Sambha!

1. How long is the classic train fight sequence at the beginning of the movie? (From the line "Daku!" to the line "Maine kahan bhaagne kee koshish...")

(a) A little over four minutes

(b) A little over five minutes

(c) A little over six minutes

(d) A little over seven minutes

2. What is the contribution of PL Raj to the film? (Hint: he deserves credit for at least three of the sequences and they are wonderful).

3. Just about five minutes into the film, Sanjeev Kumar says to the jailer, "Nahin jailer sahab. agar ek taraf inme yeh sab kharabiyan hain, to doosri taraf kuchh khoobiyan bhi hain"

And the jailer speaks a line which is a tangential tribute to a similar film -- a story about outlaws being called in to defend a village from dacoits, that movie was released one year before Sholay. Which film? (Clearly, Salim-Javed, the script writers, besides having seen many curry Westerns, had seen this film and wanted to pay a tribute in their own style).

4. Which city is Ahmed (played by Sachin) going to join his new job?

5. How many times is the coin tossed in Sholay?

6. Who is Asrani jailer's informer in the film?

7. In the famous intro scene for Hema Malini (Basanti), she ends the tonga journey by telling a story about how her name was chosen. Which relative influenced her choice of name?

(a) chachi ke saas ka devar

(b) mousi ke saas ka devar

(c) mousi ke devar ki saas

(d) chachi ke devar ki saas

8. What fruit does Dharam (Veeru) grab in the song "Yeh Dosti" ?

(a) orange

(b) chikoo

(c) apple

(d) banana

9. We all know that the award on Gabbar is poore pachaas hazaar (suna?!). But what is the award on Amitabh Bachchan (Jai) and Veeru, as mentioned by Soorma Bhopali (Jagdeep)?

10. What is the contribution of Reshma Pathan (also called the ‘Sholay Girl’) to the film?

11. The first scene after intermission features Sanjeev Kumar (Thakur) -- with which other actor?

(Hint: Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi)

12. One of the astonishing romances in Indian cinema. How many lines of dialogue do Amitabh and Jaya Bhaduri (Radha) have -- DIRECTLY to each other?

(a) Four

(b) Two

(c) Zero

(d) Eight

13. What was the instrument used by RD Burman and team, for Gabbar's eerie entry?

(a) Violin

(b) Flute

(c) Comb with cellophane Paper

(d) Cello

14. Besides hinting at danger, in the way he used instrumentation in each song in the film after Gabbar's entry, the other great achievement by RD Burman was the way he used intermittent silence in the fight sequences to heighten suspense.

There is this great fight on the bridge where Amitabh tells Dharam and Hema to escape, while he fights. The music stops and starts again when Amitabh starts walking towards the bridge to make his chilling decision. How long is the musical silence (only ambient noises like boards creaking, bullets, and men falling etc.

 (a) About one minute

(b) About two minutes

(c) About three minutes

(d) About four minutes

15. An easy one. What is the significance of the registration number MYB 3047 in the film?

16. Best Actor, Best Screenplay. Best Dialogue. Best Direction, Best Music Direction, Best Background Music. Best Debut. Best Editing. Sholay deserved and should have won all these Filmfare awards. But it won only one of these. Which well-deserved award?

17. The famous art cinema director once said: "I will never make a Hindi commercial film, but if I do, I would like it to be like Sholay". Who?

Incidentally, he did cast two of the leading actors from Sholay in one of his art films just two years later.

18. In which Bombay theatre did Sholay run for five years -- non-stop?

19. Another easy one: Amjad Khan became the first VILLAIN of Indian cinema to endorse a brand -- a confection/snack which is a household name in India today. Which one?

20. "It was the first film I saw in a theatre. It was a theatre in Kanpur -- I don't remember the name now. Of course, we didn't want anyone to recognize us -- if anyone did, there would be a commotion! So we went covered in shawls. When we came out, we were glad no one had recognized us. But I simply had to see the film at least once. It was so important to me."

Who might have said these words in the late 1970s? This person would later also go on to become a MP and become a subject of an art-house film. 

21. The names Jai and Veeru were inspired by which person's real life college friends?

22. Scriptwriter of the film (with Salim), Javed Akhtar saw Amjad Khan in a play in a small theatre venue in Delhi in 1963 and suggested his name to the producers. What was the name of the play?

Hint: Lata singing a patriotic song

23. After the success of ‘Seeta aur Geeta’ Ramesh Sippy further cemented his place as one of the all-time great directors in Hindi box office commercial cinema, with the super-duber hit -- Sholay. Of  course, we know that. However, which hugely successful TV serial did Sippy co-direct (with Jyoti Swarup) in 1986? It was screened with a rapt audience on DD National.  Incidentally, he also met the actress who would eventually become his wife on the sets of the serial. Who was the actress?

Answers

1 (d) A little over 7 minutes.

2. He was the choreographer. 'Mehbooba Mehbooba' and 'Holi Ke Din' and the climax song,'Jab Tak Hain Jaan'!

3. Khote Sikke. Feroz Khan made this film in 1974. The dialogue is, "Khota sikka to dono hi taraf se khota hota hain."See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khote_Sikkay

4. Jabalpur.

5. Four times. Once when they decide to help Thakur after the train fight, once when they decide to take Thakur's offer, once when the final fight is on to decide which of Jai and Veeru should leave... and once for the unknown village beauty during the song "Yeh Dosti" !

6. Hariram Nayee (Barber).

7. (c) Mousi Kee Devar Kee Saas!

8. (c) He flicks an apple from a passing cart.

9. Two thousand rupees.

10. She is the stuntwoman for Hema Malini-- the chase scene with Gabbar and his men!

11. Om Shiv Puri. He was Sudha Shivpuri's husband. Sudha played 'Baa' in ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’. Husband and wife have, respectively, a part in film and TV's biggest successes.

12. (b) "Yeh leejeye. bahut tang kar raha hain aapko" -- as he hands over the baby goat (kid) to Jaya. Jaya says nothing to him directly in the entire film. (When she hands over the keys of the house, she speaks to both Jai and Veeru).

13. Cello.

14. (d) About four minutes.

15. It is the registration number of the bike that Jai-Veeru steal and then ride!

16.  Best Editing won by Madhav Shinde. He edited 3,00,000 feet of film into 18,000 feet with technology that could not have been very modern. Watch the film again and you will realize how sharply edited it is. Sadly, Shinde passed away in poverty in 2012; his former producers did nothing to help him.

17. No less a person than Satyajit Ray! The film he made in 1977 -- Shatranj Ke Khiladi, starring the two towering actors of Sholay -- Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan. Amitabh was also there for voice-over.

(Very Very Important Note: Shatranj Ke Khiladi is not connected to any of the later Khiladi films starring Akshay Kumar!)

 18. Minerva Theatre, Mumbai. A genuine run for all three shows, houseful, not at all like DDLJ in Maratha Mandir whose sole 12.30 show runs empty.

19. Parle G. 

20. Phoolan Devi. 

21. Veerendar Singh Bias and Jai Singh Rao Kalevar.  Friends of Salim Khan.

22. Ae mere watan ke logon… While watching this play, Javed Akhtar realized what an incredible talent Amjad Khan was.

23. The extremely popular TV serial with Partition and its aftermath as backdrop, was Buniyad. It was written by Manohar Shyam Joshi. The actress who would eventually become Ramesh Sippy’s wife is Kiran Juenja, who also had a key role in the TV serial.

---

Uttara Shidore is a diversity and inclusion consultant whose interests include geometric art and cooking. Sudarshan Shidore is a data scientist and short fiction author who loves quizzing and music. They are based in Mumbai.