Sholay

If you liked "Once upon a time in the west", "The magnificent seven" and "A fistful of dollars", you will love "Sholay". It takes all the good ingredients of a western, spices it with a lot of Indian ingredients and lets it simmer until you get one of the finest "curry" westerns imaginable. Though obviously very much inspired by the "spaghetti" westerns of the late 1960s/early 1970s, this easily surpasses most of the films it's modeled after. A masterpiece.

Some of the most pathetic conversion from 2D-3D available on screen, that puts the shoddy 'Clash of the Titans' on a pedestal for how to do things. The wonderful original background score has also been screwed-with (thankfully, not to a great extent) by someone called Raju Singh. Atmos sound works most of the time. Better viewed in 2D, and I shall remedy the mistake when/if I get the chance, though I'd have to live with the screwed-over score in any case (I think).

Having said that, the audience members who watched this one when I did, had the following attributes: 1. Intent in capturing selfies during the movie's running time. Cams pointed right at the audience as well, flashes going off to the tune of 5-10 occasions every half hour. 2. Babies, who (obviously) brought the house down with the (oh so pleasant) screaming when Atmos accentuated every gunshot, every death-scream, and every swear word. 3. Cam phones once again, being used by geniuses to take snaps of the (3D) images on screen. Wait, there's more... 4. Cacophonous laughs and jeers at every quite moment, some of which were romantic, most of which were tragic/poignant. Same batch of geniuses (see above) joining in, with quite a few followers to boot......

Now, in spite of not blowing a blood vessel at all that (quite used to putting up with, nee living with, said geniuses that populate most cinemas, including multiplexes), I confess to having not felt bored even during (what I consider the weakest element of this masterpiece) those interminable flashbacks, and dated-looking/sounding/seeming scenarios on display. The performances are still top-notch, the music plays a huge role (the not-too-destroyed RDB-original score during the train sequence being a case-in-point - the rest having been butchered by Raju Singh).

All-in-all, I do hope someone coverts this for IMAX (hopefully, without the 3D), or someone updates the 3D sometime, even with crowd-funding, if that's an option. Still, this compares well against most of the other trash playing, and being appreciated, out there.

The Indian filmmaker G.P. Sippy died last December at the age of 93. his son Ramesh directed this film, which remains the most famous Hindi-language movie and the biggest commercial success for Bollywood. If you want to watch one Bollywood film in his honor, this is it.

This epic has everything. It has a magnificent Seven type story, but there are only two who come to save the village. They are thieves hired by a former policeman to capture the bandit leader.

It is a spaghetti-western of sorts as there are plenty of horses, and shooting, and fights.

It is a lavish musical with amazing color and costumes as the villagers really put on a show for their simple festival of colors.

It has comedy, slapstick, romance (but NO kissing!), music, a little horror, almost continuous action, tragedy, and triumph. Like, I said, if you only see one Sippy production, this should be it.

This is one movie which is flawless. Great performances from everyone. The cast of the movie is just perfect. Gabbar's character remains indelibly etched on your mind once you've seen him in action. Amitabh is definitely one of the greatest actors of all times. His portrayal of a criminal with morals is all the way tops along with Brando's Vito Corleone. I think the part about cheating with false coin to save Viru's life (sacrificing his own) was a lovely storyteller's touch. 10 all the way!

This movie has everything, comedy, action, drama, romance, fun, emotions. Great performance by all the characters. They are remembered even today in 2004 after nearly 30 years of the film release. I heard that this movie is now re-released with remastered sound. wow ! cant' wait to fetch the DVD of this remastered version.

The most impressive role of Gabbar by Amjad Khan was portrayed extremely well.

Its also one the longest movie. Its quite normal for bollywood movies to be 3 hours long. But this one is even longer than this. But certainly ever minute of the movie is enjoyable.

This movie is my all time favorite.