The Dashing Duo:
One of the enduring mysteries of the Hindi film industry is why the Salim-Javed writing team broke up. In the three-part docuseries, Angry Young Men, produced by their star kids, one expected the answer to be teased out gently. Journalists tried to ask, speculated and failed to get either of the two to speak about the great split. It was not just a professional parting of ways, but a personal falling out too between the men who were as close – or closer- than brothers. In the series too (on Amazon Prime Video), Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar talk candidly about their struggles, early days in films, the kind of success that altered the trajectory of mainstream cinema in the Seventies, but not about the rift.
If it weren’t for Salim-Javed, then Vijay, the Angry Young Man personified by Amitabh Bachchan, would not have come into existence, and without films like Zanjeer, Sholay, Deewar, Trishul, Don, the history of Hindi cinema would have been infinitely poorer. Some of their work and its influence has been analysed by directors like Ramesh Sippy (who worked with them), Shyam Benegal, Rajkumar Hirani, Karan Johar, Farah Khan, but not enough.
With members of the families – Honey Irani, Shabana Azmi, Helen, Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar—talking fondly about them, the series has the warmth of a fireside chat on a family vacation. But that also means no inconvenient questions are asked, and the criticism, if any, is mild.
The series does, however, pay much deserved homage to the two men, who changed the way films were written, and insisted on due credit be accorded to scriptwriters. When their names did not appear on the posters of Zanjeer, they paid a painter to stencil them across the posters all over Mumbai. At one point, they demanded—and got—one lakh more than the star of the film, Amitabh Bachchan. This is unthinkable today, when the power of the writer has diminished again, and the era of Salim-Javed is remembered with admiration and awe.
There is another inadvertent flashback revelation—the clippings of media coverage of the two men, which show that the film press back then may have been wrong or off the mark often, but it was not obsequious as it is today, with all the star-worshipping going on.
Like the best of Salim-Javed’s films, the series is entertaining and quite informative for those who may not be familiar with the films written by the power duo, to whom goes the credit for penning some of the most memorable dialogue in Hindi films; so many gems just in Sholay! Almost 50 years later, lines line Kitne aadmi the? And itna sannata kyon hai bhai? Are still used by youngsters who may not be aware of the source. Deewar had the solid gold of Mere paas Ma hai and Aaj khush to bahut honge tum.
The huge contribution of these two writers to Indian cinema cannot be encapsulated in a short series—it needs a properly researched tome.
(This piece first appeared in seniorstoday.in)
