Sholay - Édition 2 DVD

This film is still one of the most famous in India for a reason- and more people around the world should see it! It's a beautifully done & well-written masterpiece, full of surprises and unpredictable storylines & lovely songs! :) Just watch it & add it to your "Best Movie Experiences of All Times" list!!

Sholay - the greatest Bollywood film of all time - brought together the acting talents of some of the biggest stars in Bollywood at that time. The two male leads, Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan, were already hugely popular. Amitabh Bhachchan had just made his big breakthrough the previous year (1974) with Zanjeer. Dharmendra was already well established and had starred in the box office smash hit Yaadon Ki Baaraat (a film which sadly doesn't get very many mentions when talking of classics). These two are supported in the film by Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri and Amjad Khan making his onscreen debut as the menacing villain Gabbar Singh. This film is to Bollywood what Star Wars is to Hollywood - the greatest film of all time. It set a new standard for others which has never really been equalled since its opening in August 1975. It ran for five consecutive years to packed cinema houses in India.

Shortly before release, government censors forced the makers to shoot an alternate ending upholding the power of the police, which changed the whole meaning of the film (emptiness of vengeance) to something else. The real ending was thought lost for decades before being rediscovered in time for the DVD release. And now Prime has taken a step back and is making the censored ending available without even a warning that it is wrong. Please, seek out a better version of the film, or even find the original ending on youtube, in order to understand the filmmakers true message. Otherwise, the whole movie is nonsense.

Sholay is an epic for the era in which it was released and till today. I don't think an American who doesn't get the language can accurately critique the movie. Each character was carefully embedded in the movie, with its dialogs and peculiarities. For those of us who remember this movie, remember each dialog, song, moves etc. Not just that, it was ahead of its times in its social message and theme. None had been presented this way. Even today, not many writers focus so much on each character of the movie and pull it all together. When done this way, it no wonder is a hit and an epic.

There is a lot of confusion and misinformation in the reviews on this page so, before I review the film, which I watched last night, a few facts. The EROS DVD version of the film is 204 minutes long with a standard 4:3 aspect ratio. There are some flaws in the print, and some in the original filming. The worst flaw in the print is a ragged vertical line on several minutes of film. In the original film, there are several cases where objects intrude on the screen, such as a hand holding up the stolen motorbike in one shot. But neither is bad enough to spoil the viewer's experience. The print is certainly not "awful" as one reviewer said. According to Wikipedia, what we are seeing on the EROS DVD is what was originally filmed. To make the film appear to be wide screen, without the expense of widescreen cameras, the tops and bottoms were cut off the frames for the theatrical release. Also according to Wikipedia, the censorship board cut quite a lot of violence from the original, making it a much less powerful movie. The EROS DVD is the "director's cut" with the violence intact. Now, how did I like the movie. It's ok, but it's no Star Wars. The dialog in the Russian "Eastern" "White Sun of the Desert" is better. For me, the comedy fell absolutely flat, especially the endless "humor" about a woman who talks too much. The Charlie Chaplin pastiche by the prison guard was mildly amusing, but not really funny. The action is good, but not great. It held my interest. The acting is very good, especially the charm of the two main characters. What I liked best was the music. The song and dance numbers always brought a smile to my face.

Wah, wah! What a fantastic flick. This is a story of two crooks who end up doing the right thing. In the meantime, one falls in love. The songs are lovely classic Bollywood. It makes me proud to be Indian. Remember, this was filmed in the days before computer grafics made anything possible on the screen. The train scene when the dacoits try to stop and rob the train is simply breathtaking. Those riders and ponies are real. The ending will leave you in tears.

There's a reason this movie is a classic. It has every human emotion imaginable with love, friendship, comedy, human dignity as well as loads of action. It's a must see if you love movies.

Very poor quality video, audio is below average.

Another childhood memory

Ne pas se fier à la jacquette qui semble annoncer un quelconque film d'action de série : voici l'un des plus gros succès de Bollywood, son film sans doute le plus mythique... SHOLAY ("les flammes") ou l'histoire de deux petites frappes au grand coeur qui défendent un village du fin fond de l'Inde contre une bande de tueurs menée par un psychopathe entré depuis au panthéon du cinéma indien. SHOLAY, contrairement à nombre de films à la flamboyante réputation, ne déçoit pas et parvient même à surprendre : nerveux, monté à la mitrailleuse (voir l'attaque du train, hallucinante de maestria), le film alterne action et comédie sans jamais faiblir ni même se répéter. Il offre toute une galerie de personnages inoubliables dans une ambiance 100% indienne garantie (le film se passe quasi-intégralement en extérieurs): inutile de dire que les trois heures et demi passent à une vitesse stupéfiante jusqu'à un dénouement poignant, bref... on comprend pourquoi certains Indiens ont vu ce film jusqu'à 10 fois, SHOLAY est le film dont on ne se lasse pas. Si vous aimez Bollywood, et si vous n'avez pas encore vu ce film : mesurez la chance que vous avez, car vous êtes sur le point de découvrir l'un des joyaux de ce cinéma merveilleux.

Sehr schön Romantisch und aufregend zu gleich einfach Super guter Schauspieler .I mag halt einfach Bollywood. Gerne immer wieder und zwar nur Bollywood!!!

In timeless classic bollywood tradition this movie is by far one of the best ever made, acting, singing, dancing and one of the best soundtracks you can lay your hands on. My partner(who's english) had never seen a hindi film before and was so taken back by it,laughing and crying along with the movie. if this movie was released today it would still be a smash. If you love movies, watch this....

It was good. Maybe because I watched it only now for the first time, I didn't find it great. Some of the fight scenes were too choreographed. I found it odd that a man with no arms was able to beat someone up without much fightback!