When first released, the film was declared a commercial disaster. Word of mouth convinced movie-goers to give the film a chance and soon it became a box-office phenomenon. It ran for 286 weeks straight (more than five years) in one Mumbai theatre, the Minerva. Sholay racked up a still record 60 golden jubilees across India, and doubled its original gross over reruns during the late 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.[1] Sholay was the first film in the history of Indian cinema to celebrate silver jubilee (25 weeks) at over a hundred theatres across India.[1]

In 1999, BBC India declared it the "Film of the Millennium"; Indiatimes movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.[2] In that same year, the judges of the 50th annual Filmfare awards awarded it with a special award called Filmfare Best Film of 50 Years.

Interesting to note this fact:

Aftermath
Gabbar is kicked around by the Thakur but is saved in the nick of time by the police, who tell the Thakur that Gabbar must be arrested and dealt with by the law. As Gabbar is taken away, the Thakur is denied vengeance, but knows that Ramgarh is free once again.

Jai's funeral takes place as Veeru stands all alone in front of the pyre. In the distance, Radha watches on through a window.

With nothing more for him in Ramgarh, Veeru leaves on a train. But as he looks up, he sees that he is not alone. Basanti has also boarded the train and both she and Veeru leave Ramgarh together.

Alternate Versions
The film has two known endings. The original ending (shown in the Eros-released DVD) has Thakur Baldev Singh killing Gabbar Singh, trampling him with spike-soled shoes. The C.B.F.C. (Central Board of Film Certification) however, found the ending unacceptable as they thought that any police officers, should not be shown to commit murder. For this reason, a new ending was filmed, in which the police only arrest Gabbar Singh. The original ending can be seen on some television broadcasts and on some versions of the DVD.

it is indeed a great movie, i loved Hema in it, her prattling was so hilarious, loved Dharam when he was drunk n asking for Hema to get married to him, Amit and Dharam in the first song (that song stuck in my head for the longest while), Helen and that dance, oh man was she ever goooooood and Gabbar, was so afraid of him, he was badddddddddddddd, Jaya was very quiet but played a memorable role n Sanjeev..a masterful actor in a great role..

Mehebooba Mehebooba

Yeh Dosti


Great song about friendship....Amitabh Bachan and Dharmendra...

Holi Ke Din

Hema is so adorable.

Dharmendra & Hema Malini - Koi Haseena

Sholay is one of the most successful commercial films in history of Bollywood. It broke all records of popularity when it was released in 1975. The story was about a police officer who lost his family because of a Don and the revenge he took.The film was a multi starer with Amithabh Bachchan Dharmendra , Sanjiv Kumar , Amzad Khan, and Jaya Bachchan in the lead role. The film has a very gripping story and some very popular dialogs. Most of the characters of film are still remembered by every one... after well.... over 30 years since it was released. This film is considered a cult film for every aspirant film maker and every one tries to match the success of this phenomenal film. Every thing about this film was remarkable, from story line to the music, to direction and performance... this is undisputedly one of the most popular film that bollywood has ever produced.


source: Reviewstream

quote:

Originally posted by Mitwah:
Yeh Dosti


Great song about friendship....Amitabh Bachan and Dharmendra...

g'morning this song takes me back a long time to school days, it is so lovely n now it's going to stick in my head agaaaaaaaaaaain, tnks for posting.

Own 3 Indian LP's... Sholay, Waqt & Tsri Manzil...

Have Sholay DVD...

Love the movie Sholay, Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) steals the show with his acting ability.

Lets see if we can take this reviews to about fifty pages.

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Too great a movie to be left untouched.
So lets give it the GNI Treatment: Sit back and relax and enjoy the professional at work

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Sholay 1975


Staring: Dharmendra, Amithabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan
Director: Ramesh Sippy
Producer: G. P. Sippy
Music: R. D. Burman
Running time: 198 minutes (DEI/Eros), 204 (Eros/B4U)
Format: NTSC
Video: 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen (DEI/Eros), 4:3 full screen (Eros/B4U)
Sound: Hindi Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: English
Year: 1975 (cinema), 1999 (DVD)
DVD: Single sided dual layered
DVD Author: Digital Entertainment Inc (DEI/Eros), Dot Media (Eros/B4U)
DVD Release by: Eros International

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Sholay 1975

Synopsis:

While many countries may have had hard decisions to make to pick out a single film of the century at the close of the last millennium, Indian cinema goers had an easy pick as there was only one real contender for the film of the 20th century; Sholay. The importance and significant of Sholay cannot be understated as it's the one movie that has symbolised the India cinema for the last 30 + years. It's the most watched Indian film ever and the one most have seen and remember.

Sholay has a compelling story that is unforgettable and timeless. Akin to the Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) the plot revolves around a tormented and impoverished village that is the persistent victim of an invading gang of bandits that leach and dictate the villagers. Enter Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) once a brave Police Officer and now retired to the village that is under regular attacks from the bandits. He hires two small time convicts Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jaidev (Amitabh Bachchan) not to protect the village but to capture the leader of the bandits, Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). The deal being that Thakur wants Gabbar Singh alive at any cost. So the story unfolds in an intriguing series of chapters that sees Veeru and Jaidev take up Thakurs offer and come to the village to capture the mighty figure of Gabbar Singh - if only things were that simple! What follows in the three-hour epic is a gripping, dramatic, thrilling and ultimately tragic narrative of the two protagonists in a fight to capture Gabbar Singh and the revelations on why Thakur wants the bad guy so severely. The execution of the film is in brilliant style and manner that has not been replicated by any other film to date in India.

Directed by Ramesh Sippy, Sholay is one of the most celebrated and highly praised of all Indian films - its is a film that would end up in the 'best all time top tens' of most Indian film critics. Sholay has had the record of being the longest running film in Indian cinematic history, which ran for 265 weeks at the cinema only recently been surpassed by the popular romantic film Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995 - Shahrukh Khan and Kajol). Two of the factors that make Sholay such a memorable and loved film are the characters and powerful dialogues written by know legendary Indian writers Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan - a combo so famous for their joint work that they are solely credited as Javed-Salim. The characterisation of the cast in Sholay have become icons in Indian cinema - every character from Veeru and Jaidev to the heroines Basanti and Radha to the notorious villain Gabbar Singh are remembered and references in numerous films. Amjad Khan, who portrayed Gabbar Singh, is his first major role in a movie became the model villain in several films for the next decade that were to made after Sholay albeit never achieving the same success and recognition as in Sholay. Amjad Khan was also given most of the legendary lines in the film too that he delivered with extreme style and fineness that took portrayals of villains to new heights. The films heroes and heroines also became legends - and in the processes tied the knot to each other! Amitabh Bachchan gave a staggering performance that many new generation actors aspired to - Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan have said on numerous occasions that it was the performance of Amitabh in Sholay that inspired them to go into movies. Dharmendra being one the lead characters in Sholay carried the film with commendable style. The words classic and legends are created for a movie like Sholay - simply not to be missed.

Technically the film is nothing short of exceptional and in a class of its own. The film is brilliantly choreographed capturing some of the most exhilarating action sequences in Indian cinema. Lengthy camera pan shots over rocky mountain heights and stark landscapes are brilliantly done - something director Brian De Palma would be very proud of. Sholay was one of the first Indian films that made use of several cinematic innovations at the time such as 70mm format and multi track stereophonic sound. Originally Sholay was filmed at a 4:3 aspect ratio but was released for the cinema in a matted 2.35:1 aspect ratio on 70mm film format. Also the film was shot with two different endings. Due to certain pressures from Indian film censors and media the director's cut of the film remained behind closed doors for many years until it re-surfaced as an extended version. This version was re-cut by Ramesh Sippy and showed the original intended ending - which would act as a major spoiler for those not seen Sholay before, if I revealed it here! So hence two versions of Sholay exist; the original theatrical version, which runs for 188 minutes and the extended director's cut which is 204 minutes long. And both are available on DVD.

The first release of Sholay on DVD was an effort by DEI/Eros, which used the wide screen 70mm version of the film. It was later released under the Eros/B4U tag, which was the director's version of the film but also presented it as originally shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio.

I love doing this:
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Video DEI/Eros

Of the two available DVDs the video on this version is better in terms of picture clarity and sharpness but its not all high-quality stuff. Presented at a zoomed 1.85:1 aspect ratio from the original 2.35:1 matted version of Sholay you can tell from the screen shots below exactly how much of the picture is missing compared to the full frame version of Sholay.




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Sholay 1975

Next we look at some scenes from Sholay:

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