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Wednesday, 17 February 2016

The eternal Blockbuster

Sholay a fantastico 1975 Indian Hindi action-adventure film has been directed

by Ramesh Sippy and produced by his father G. P. Sippy.Its one of

the best Indian films.The film is about two criminals, Veeru and Jai

(played by Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan), hired by a retired

police officer (Sanjeev Kumar) to capture the ruthless dacoit Gabbar

Singh (Amjad Khan). Hema Malini and Jaya Bhaduri, as Veeru and Jai's

love interests. Its been awarded as the Best Film of 50 Years in the

50th annual Filmfare Awards.The movie has a length of 198

minutes.Sholay was also re-released to theatres in the 3D format.The

most heart breaking scene was when Veeru returns, and Jai dies in

his arms.Radha is left alone again.The character Gabbar Singh was

modelled on a real-life dacoit of the same name who had menaced the

villages around Gwalior in the 1950s.The producers considered Danny

Denzongpa for the role of bandit chief Gabbar Singh but he was busy

with another movie. Pran was considered for the role of Thakur

Baldev Singh, but Sippy thought Sanjeev Kumar was a better

choice.Initially, Dharmendra was also interested to play the role of

Thakur. But he agreed to play Veeru as to be paired with Hema

Malini. The addition of romance, comedy, and songs gave it the

ambiance that one expects of a Hindi film.Spectacular

cinematography, with shots panning over rocky heights and barren

canyons. Amjad Khan played the role with perfection.Salim-Javed

created immortal characters.Hema's yak-yak Basanti remains her most

memorable role.Viju Khote made a lasting impression as Kaalia, one

of Gabbar Singh's sidekicks.His dialogue 'Sarkar maine aapka namak

khaya hai.' is still famous.Amitabh Bachchan has recently revealed

he wanted to play the role of Gabbar when he first heard the script

of "Sholay".According to Bachchan, the audience connected well with

the film as it had a well structured story, great dialogues and

powerful performances by actors. He said “90 per cent of the work

was done by Salim-Javed… they wrote a wonderful script. The film

took two-and-a-half years to make.Sholay the most famous and

greatest Bollywood film was released on August 15, 1975 and

celebrates its 40th anniversary this Independence Day.Sholay spent

decades as the longest-running Indian film, unchallenged until the

arrival of DDLJ.In the original ending, Thakur kills Gabbar. This

had to be changed to the police arriving at the last moment after

the Censor Board objected to what they deemed vigilantism.Scenes

featuring Gabbar Singh's hideout were shot at the granite rocks in

Ramnagram near Bangalore. A part of Ramnagram town was renamed

Sippynagar in honour of director Ramesh Sippy.Actor Sachin, who

played Ahmed,received a refrigerator as part of his acting fee.Jaya

Bachchan, who played the widowed Radha, was pregnant with daughter

Shweta while the film was being shot, and pregnant with son Abhishek

when the film premiered.Jai and Veeru were named after Salim Khan's

friends from college. Baldev Singh was named after Salim Khan's

father-in-law, the father of his first wife Salma whose real name is

Sushila Charak.Real bullets were allegedly used in the climax scene

of the film and a stray bullet is said to have narrowly missed

Amitabh Bachchan.Sholay remains still our favourite movie even its been 40 years now

since its release. The navigation of emotions from scene to scene is super and its peppy music

still haunts us.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

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