No Deewaar in Sholay dons’ Dostana

‘Kitne aadmi they — do!’ And these ‘do’ were the hottest selling duo, writing 24 films together, 22 of these blockbusters! The famous Salim-Javed story gets to the masses with docu-series ‘Angry Young Men’. And, it’s a masterclass in how to write a story… that of a film, and life.

National Award-winning editor Namrata Rao helms this riveting docu-series, that’s a heady mix of the personal and professional lives of two angry young men who came from outside and conquered Bollywood. The writers of the iconic ‘Sholay’, ‘Deewaar’, ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Don’ and ‘Dostana’, they charged ~1 lakh more than the ‘hero’s fees’, a feat unimaginable then, not repeated in the Hindi film industry since, and probably never will.

The scale of this series is massive — after all, even Bhai Salman Khan is scared of the interview. People from different generations, right from the late Yash Chopra to the young angry man of today, ‘KGF’ star Yash, come together to register the duo’s impact on the industry.

How the two met and became partners is one aspect, but how they subconsciously portrayed the angst of the 1970s in their films is another wonder that they talk about. What one loves the most about the series is that Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar are unapologetic about what life’s been — the loneliness of their childhood, misery of the struggling days, to the arrogance and tomfoolery of success.

In no-holds-barred interviews, they chivalrously claim how they demanded their right, and took success for granted. When the poster of ‘Zanjeer’ did not carry their credit, they hired a painter to add their names to the posters all over Mumbai. When ‘Sholay’ didn’t get the opening they wanted, they posted ads claiming their film will do ‘1 crore’ in each territory. They were proven wrong. “The film did way better,” Salim Khan chuckles.

The first two episodes talk of their beginning and journey, heavily interspersed with scenes from the films. They talk of the good times, and bad, with equal honesty. There is a particularly poignant scene when Javed Akhtar talks of life then and now. He mentions how when a breakfast trolley rolls in with butter, jam, half-fried eggs and coffee, “it’s still difficult for me to believe that all this is for me”. He makes a point on how anyone who has gone through hunger and lack of sleep can hardly ever get over it.

Salim Khan, who came from a privileged background, too had his share of struggles. His dream was to be able to afford a full room. Lack of consistent work made him share a room at ~55 a month. His elder brother Naeem Khan gets teary-eyed sharing how Salim struggled for 15 long years.

What’s beautiful to see is how they responded to life’s challenges. Salim Khan mentions Prophet Muhammad’s line: ‘Mazdoor ko uska pasina sukhne se pehle mazdoori do.’ When he was made to wait for eight hours and asked to come back later, he didn’t think of teaching that man a lesson, but only that he would not do this to anyone.

Javed Akhtar recalls how going hungry for days and walking from Dadar to Bandra, he always thought, “This is so going to be in my biography.” The thought never crossed his mind that life would not be a success. His child-like enthusiasm has been duly captured in the series. How old age is always 10 years ahead, to his proudly sharing an autograph by Faiz Ahmad Faiz are such pure scenes.

The third episode talks of their split. All we get is: Javed thought that the ‘spring of their career was running dry’. They talk of their second marriages. No startling revelations here, but two blended families who have learnt to love and respect their circumstances.

If you want to get back at someone, let your work do the talking — such is the Salim-Javed story. They also talk unabashedly about the failure of ‘Immaan Dharam’ and how the film industry threw champagne parties to celebrate it. Arbaaz says, ‘Hell hath no fury like Salim Khan scorned’, but one sees Salim’s funny bone. ‘Thakur toh gayo,’ he says, wiping sweat from his forehead, calling it ‘takdeer’. Yes, they do address the plagiarism charges. While there is a whole lot of hero worship, Jaya Bachchan and Honey Irani, Javed’s first wife, give their honest take.

Here, one gets to see Salim-Javed through their children’s eyes — Zoya and Farhan, Salman and Arbaaz. But one wishes for more. One wonders how Salim was as a father to Sohail, Alvira and Arpita. And how ‘Mr India’was conceived.

The series is for every Bollywood buff. After all, we are talking about the duo that none other than Shyam Benegal was jealous of — for their ability to draw masses, as he mentions. The series drives on the strength of their iconic scenes and oft-quoted dialogues, interspersed with their personal narratives.

Rao shows her editing skills as the footage of films and interviews, scenes from theatres and video parlours to the queues outside cinemas seamlessly come together.