Sholay (1975)

 Sholay is a Hindi action and adventure film written by Salim Javed. It was directed by Ramesh Sippy and was produced by his father, G. P. Sippy. The film is about two criminal friends, Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), who was hired by a retired police officer (Sanjeev Kumar) in the film. The motive was to capture the ruthless dacoit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan), a menace to society. Hema Malini and Jaya Bhaduri also co-star as Veeru and Jai's love interests. Basanti and Radha are the names of the characters played by them, respectively. 

Sholay is considered a classic and cult favorite. It managed to rank first in the British Film Institute's 2002 Top 10 Indian Films polls. In the year of 2005, the judges of the 50th Filmfare Awards named it the Best Film of the 50 Years of Indian Films.

The film was apparently shot in the rocky terrain of Ramanagara. It is in the southern state of Karnataka and was shot over two and a half years. Sholay was finally released with a length of 198 minutes in total. In the year of 1990, the original director's cut of 204 minutes was made available in home media. 

Upon its first release, the movie Sholay received negative critical reviews and tepid commercial response. Still, favorable word-of-mouth publicity helped the movie become a box office success at the end. The film broke several records for continuously being shown in many theatres across India. And managed to run for more than five years at Mumbai's Minerva theater, which is quite a big deal. The film also saw an overseas success in the old Soviet Union. It became the highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time. And was the highest-grossing film in India until the movie "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!" (1994). By numerous people, Sholay remains one of the highest-grossing Indian films. 

The film is a Dacoit Western, combining the conventions of the regular Indian dacoit films with that of the 'Spaghetti Westerns' elements and even elements of 'Samurai' cinema at the time. Sholay has also become a defining example of the 'masala films'. It mixes works of several genres into one piece. 

Scholars have noted several themes within the film, such as conformation to feudal ethos, glorification of violence, and debate between social order and homosocial bonding. The combined sales of the original sound track by R. D. Burman and the dialogues set new sales records. The film's dialogues and certain characters in it have become archetypes. And extremely popular. Which contributes to numerous memes and becoming part of India's daily vernacular. 

what do you love most about Sholay? Let me know in the comments below!