Plot Summary – In the village of Ramgarh, retired police chief Thakur Baldev Singh plots to bring down the notorious bandit Gabbar Singh and enlists the help of two lesser criminals, Jai and Veeru.

★★★★★  

Watched 11 Jan 2025

What more do you want from the cinema? This had always been a glaring hole in my cinephilia. How could I respectably show my face as an Indian cinephile without having watched what is the quintessential Bollywood film? Fifty years of Indian pop culture have been defined by this movie. So many references, so many dialogues, and so many cultural touchstones just started to make sense when I watched this movie. Modern Bollywood could learn a lot from Sholay – surprisingly progressive in both its views and cinematic techniques. A villain so scary and effective that you can see his influence on almost every villain in an Indian film.

The BBC called this Indian Star Wars because of how influential it was on Indian cinema. I think that’s actually underselling it. Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan are phenomenally and effortlessly charismatic. Movies like RRR rely so heavily on this film for their iconography and theme. An almost flawless script from Salim-Javed is elevated by the beautiful way in which this film is shot. In many ways, it’s timeless. I cannot believe I am this late to the party but I’m glad I attended nevertheless. If you’ve somehow never watched this film, I highly highly recommend it. It’s got everything – action, romance, drama, revenge. You will feel the full spectrum of human emotion. Isn’t that the point of good art?