The defining attributes of the Zanjeer, Deewaar and Sholay screenplays - pace and potency - are impossible to replicate in a documentary series even if it is about the men who wrote them. Angry Young Men - The Salim-Javed Story is, however, crammed with elements that render it instantly engaging and entertaining. Produced by the progeny of the iconic writing duo - Salman Khan (Salman Khan Films), Farhan Akhtar (Excel Media and Entertainment) and Zoya Akhtar (Tiger Baby) - the three-episode Amazon Prime Video show does a perfect job of spotlighting the cornerstones of the Salim Khan-Javed Akhtar partnership that, in the 1970s, yielded a few of the greatest Hindi megahits.
Directed by film editor Namrata Rao, whose oft-demonstrated sense of narrative tempo comes in handy, the series has the vim and vigour to turn an appraisal of a remarkable body of work into a lively blend of information and analysis. Salim Khan arrived in Bombay from Indore to try his luck as an actor. Javed Akhtar, ten years younger, made his way to the city from Bhopal.
Both weathered years of struggle before they became a duo who churned out a series of blockbusters. Their phenomenal success rate, a part of Hindi cinema folklore, is absolutely deserving of the documentary mini-series treatment that it has earned not a day too soon. "Two boys came out of nowhere and became gamechangers," says Salim.
"They changed the status of film writers." Keenly aware of the enormous value that they lent the films they s.