Sholay, without an iota of doubt, is the most iconic Indian movie. The curry western has made its way to the top of the cult status because of it’s sheer quality. There are a lot of outtakes from Sholay that have gained immense popularity over the years – Gabbar’s menacing laughter, Basanti’s outrageous behaviour and Jai and Veeru’s everlasting friendship.
We’ve seen a lot of people going on endlessly about how Jai and Veeru are the perfect examples of how ideal friends should be like. We decided to analyse their friendship and the results were shocking. Here are some reasons why they are terrible friends who you wouldn’t want in your lives:
1. Jai was supremely manipulative and he got Veeru to do whatever he wanted.
Remember the coin with two heads? Jai always got his way as he manipulated Veeru on every occasion.
Real friends don’t manipulate you or try and get their way every time. Jai is ready to go up to any extent to get Veeru to do his biding. The coin with two heads is the best example of this scenario.
2. Jai and Veeru don’t talk about anything but money.
Conversation between friends are about a lot of things. No healthy friendship is based on money but Jai and Veeru don’t talk about anything but that.
Jai and Veeru have based their entire friendship around the fact that they can earn more money together. They rarely talk about important things like life decisions and their feelings. Fuck all that because it’s all about the moolah!
3. Jai tried sabotaging Veeru’s relationship by putting him down in front of Mausiji.
When Veeru told Jai about his desire to marry Basanti, Jai does the exact opposite of what friends do. He spoke trash about him.
Real friends would never ruin your chances when it comes to relationships. Jai does the exact opposite of that when talks shit about Veeru in front of Mausiji. It wasn’t all fun and games because we clearly see how Mausiji decides against getting Basanti married to Veeru. Why would a good friend do anything to sabotage the relationship of his best friend?
4. Veeru doesn’t save Jai when Jai gets shot.
When Jai gets shot and asks Veeru to leave him behind, Veeru agrees with him. If there’s one rule in friendship that you must follow then it is – Leave no man behind.
Real friends would never abandon you in a time of need. A friend in need is a friend indeed but the supposed stalwarts of friendship – Jai and Veeru – don’t adhere to this. Veeru abandons Jai even though he could have carried him to Ramgarh. Even though the dynamite needed to be shot at from a close distance, Veeru could have easily shifted the dynamite stick to the other end of the bridge before blowing it up.
5. Radha is left alone as Veeru lives happily ever after with Basanti.
After Jai’s death, Veeru didn’t really care about his friend’s love-interest who probably lived a lonely miserable life.
A good friend would take care of people who are left distraught after your death but Veeru leaves Radha alone who probably ended up with a miserable lonely life after the climax of the movie. Out of general courtesy, he should have made sure that Radha wouldn’t live miserably for the rest of her life because Jai, after all, died to save Veeru’s ass. We are explicitly talking about the alternate ending of Sholay (The Director’s Cut), Thakur goes to prison for killing Gabbar and Radha has nothing to look forward to in life.