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Sholay (advertised in English as Embers, Flames, or Flames of the Sun) is the biggest hit in the history of Bollywood, India's Mumbai film industry. It was released in 1975. It starred Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, and Hema Malini. Amjad Khan, as a villainous bandit chief, held his own against some of the biggest stars in 1970s Bollywood cinema.

It is the highest grossing movie of all time in India. It earned Rs. 2,134,500,000, equivalent to US $ 50 million.. In 1999, BBC India declared it the "Film of the Millennium"; in 2005, the judges of the 50th annual Filmfare awards called it the best film of the last 50 years.

When first released the film was declared a commercial disaster. Word of mouth convinced other movie-goers to give the film a chance and it soon became a box-office phenomenon. It ran for 286 weeks straight in one Mumbai theatre, the Minerva.

Credits

The film was produced by G. P. Sippy and directed by his son Ramesh Sippy. It was written by scriptwriters Salim-Javed. R. D. Burman contributed the music. It was the first Hindi (and possibly Indian) movie to have a stereophonic soundtrack.

Dharmendra, one of the top stars in Bollywood, was expected to carry the film. It was a surprise to all concerned when Amitabh Bachchan also attracted equal audience attention. Another surprise was the actor who played the evil Gabbar Singh, Amjad Khan. He played his role with great panache and had his own legion of fans.

Audiences also loved the minor characters:

• Jagdeep as Surma Bhopali
• Asrani as the comic jailor
• Viju Khote as Kalia
• Mac Mohan as Sambha
• A.K. Hangal as the blind imam
• Sachin as the imam's son
• Leela Mishra as Basanti's aunt
• Satyen Kappu as Thakur's servant
• Helen as a sexy Gypsy dancer
• Jalal Agha as gypsy singer who sings Mehbooba Mehbooba

All of these roles were skillfully played and and contributed greatly to the effect of the movie.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler A retired police officer, Thakur (played by Sanjeev Kumar), hires two convicts, Veeru and Jai (Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan), to capture Gabbar Singh. Singh is a bandit, a dacoit, who sent his men to kill Thakur's entire family. Only Thakur and his daughter-in-law survived.

Thakur cannot take revenge himself; Gabbar Singh cut off his arms. He is handicapped, and would have no chance against a whole band of vicious dacoits. However, when he was a police officer, he had dealings with the two petty criminals, Veeru and Jai, whom he learned to admire despite their misdeeds. He thinks that Veeru and Jai have what it takes to defeat the bandits. Veeru and Jai are reluctant at first, but finally agree to come to Thakur's village and help him carry out his revenge.

Once in the village, the cynical young men find themselves growing fond of the villagers, and taking pity on their sufferings under bandit tyranny. Some of the villagers evoke more than fondness: both Veeru and Jai fall in love. Veeru is attracted to Basanti (played by Hema Malini), a feisty young woman who makes her living driving a tanga, a horse-drawn cab. Jai is drawn to Radha (Jaya Bhaduri), the refined and reclusive widowed daughter-in-law. This being village India, widow remarriage is unthinkable; their mutual attraction is subtly drawn, unspoken, and doomed.

Bloody clashes between Jai, Veeru, and the bandits follow. After much sorrow and suffering, the bandits are captured.

The film had two endings. The original ending (shown in some DVD versions) shows Thakur killing Gabbar Singh, trampling him with spike-soled shoes. However, the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification, or censor board) found the ending unpalatable. Police officers, even ex-police officers, should not commit murder. A new ending was filmed, in which the police arrest Gabbar Singh in the nick of time. Several other, smaller, changes were required.

Sippy's original 204-minute version was significantly different from the censored theatrical release. Template:Endspoiler

Response

Sholay was released on 15 August 1975 in the Bombay region, the instant verdict from the trade-mullahs were — a flop. The critics were harsh and the performance at the box office was mixed. The critic K.L. Amladi of India Today called the film a "dead ember" and added, "Thematically, it's a gravely flawed attempt." Filmfare reported that the major flaw of the film was an unsuccessful micing of Western style with Indian milieu, making it a "...imitation western—neither here nor there." The audience response was still to be received.

However, by the middle of the next week, a rather curious thing happened. There was little advance booking, but the theatres were full. Cinema hall owners reported that the film was getting handsome audience. Slowly the truth emerged. The audience was so overawed to see the epic, they needed time to respond. Within weeks, Sholay became phenomenon. The visuals were stunning and the stereophonic sound was a miracle — people were thronging to see the movie. As the film caught on, tickets became priceless. At certain halls, the queue before ticket counters stretched more that a kilometer. Fans defied torrential monsoon rains to see the movie time and again.

Soon all shows were housefull. Watching Sholay in theatres became something like a Karaoke experience. The entire audience was saying aloud the dialogues with the characters. Some had even memorised the sound-effects. Ten weeks after its release, the film was declared a superhit. On 11 October, 1975, the film was released in several other territories in India.

Sholay grossed about 35 crore rupees in its first run, and it was a record that remained unbroken for the next 19 years. Sholay ran for more than five years. At the hall Minerva, it ran regular shows for three continuous years, and then in matinee shows for two more years. Even in 240th week of its release, Sholay was houseful. Throughout the country, the dialogues of the film became part of the common parlance. There were fans who saw it for thirty, forty even hundred times. The titles of superhit or megahit was not for Sholay. Sholay became a myth, a myth that remains untouched till date.

Production

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The film was a lavish production for its time. It took two and a half years to make; it went Rs. 300,000 over budget. Much of the film was set in the rocky terrain of Ramanagaram, a village near Bangalore. The filmmakers had to build a road from the Bangalore highway to Ramnagaram for convenient access to the sets.

Inspiration

Critics and movie-goers agree that the film was not totally original.

• It drew heavily upon the conventions of Western films, especially Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns.
• The first film to show a village hiring mercenaries to protect itself from bandits was the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. Hollywood remade The Seven Samurai as The Magnificent Seven in 1960, fifteen years before Sholay.
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) featured two appealing outlaws, just like Jai and Veeru.
• Critics also cite the Indian films Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971) and Khote Sikkay (1973) as possible inspirations.
• Gabbar Singh was modeled on a real-life dacoit of the same name who menaced the villages around Gwalior in the 1950s. He terrorized the local police. Any policeman captured by the real Gabbar Singh had his ears and nose cut off, and was then released as an object lesson to other policemen.
• The music for the song Mehbooba is said to have been inspired by a Western tune, by songwriter Dennis Rousso.

Legacy

Sholay has inspired many imitations, in cinema and television. None of them has had the success of the original film. The latest attempt to trade on Sholays fame is a Ram Gopal Varma film, still being cast, which was announced as "in the spirit of Sholay". The producers of original movie are threatening to sue for copyright violation.

The stars of the film appeared in other films; they did not seem to be limited by their roles in Sholay. However, some of the supporting actors never escaped the shadow of their hit film.

Amjad Khan, who played the bandit chief so brilliantly, had an undistinguished film career afterwards. He played Gabbar Singh again in the 1991 Ramgarh Ke Sholay, a parody. He also reprised the role in a commercial for biscuits.

Comedian Jagdeep, who played Soorma Bhopali in the film, also attempted to capitalize on his Sholay success; he directed and played the lead role in the 1988 film Soorma Bhopali; Dharmendra and Amitabh also appeared . The film was not a success.

Sholay is out of the theaters, but thanks to television, VCRs, and DVDs, it is widely available and still extremely popular. Young Indians who had not been born when Sholay was released will still have seen the film and know the dialogues and characters.

The extent to which Sholay has become part of the cultural make-up of modern India can perhaps be illustrated by the success of the Sholay mobile game. In 2005, some game developers (Indiagames) released a game for mobile phones that was based on Sholay. The game sold extremely well.

Awards

When it was first released, Sholay won only one Filmfare award: film editor M. S. Shinde won for Best editing. He had edited 3,00,000 feet of film into 20,000 feet of theatrical release. After the censors mandated cuts, the film was 18,000 feet and ran for 3 hours and 20 minutes.

The initially-ignored film had its revenge at 2005's 50th Filmfare Awards, when it received an award as the Best Film of 50 Years. Ramesh Sippy was there to receive the trophy.

Trivia

• Sanjeev Kumar wanted to play Gabbar Singh, but the producers insisted that he play the police officer.
• The producers wanted Danny Denzongpa to play the bandit chief, but he was committed to other films. Amjad Khan was a second choice.
• The scene in which Thakur's family is killed was cut by the censor board; the murder of a small child was deemed too horrific to show.
• The film sparked two real life romances. Amitabh married Jaya Bhaduri, who played the widowed daughter-in-law, in 1973, during the filming. Dharmendra married Hema Malini in 1980, five years after the release of the film.
• Amjad Khan prepared to play a bandit chief by reading a book titled Abhishapth Chambal, which told of the exploits of Chambal dacoits. The book was written by Taroon Coomar, who just happened to be the father of Jaya Bhaduri.
• The screenwriters, Salim-Javed, named Veeru and Jai after a couple of Salim's college friends.

Soundtrack

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R. D. Burman, who composed the music for the film, was at the height of his career in 1975, when the film was released. However, the songs from Sholay attracted less attention than the dialogues-- a rarity for Bollywood.

The songs of the film were —

1. Jab Tak Hai Jaan -- sung by Lata Mangeshkar
2. Koi Haseena -- sung by Kishore Kumar, Hema Malini
3. Holi Ke Din -- sung by Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar
4. Yeh Dosti -- sung by Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey
5. Mehbooba Mehbooba -- Rahul Dev Burman this song is still a hit & is being regularly featured in various clubs & parties as dance number.
6. A sixth song was recorded, but was never picturised or released.

Notes

1. "Sholay". International Business Overview Standard Network. Retrieved 2006-05-11.
2. ^ (Chopra 2000, pp. 156–178) harv error: no target: CITEREFChopra2000 (help)
3. (Chopra 2000, pp. 141) harv error: no target: CITEREFChopra2000 (help)

References

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==External links== Template:IndicText

• Sholay at IMDb
• Raheja, Dinesh. Why Sholay is a Cult Classic Rediff.com.
• BBC Asian Network
• University of Iowa article

• 1975 films
• Hindi films
• Indian films