Veeru falls in love with Basanti - a garrulous taangewali (horsecart driver) while Jai silently wooes the Thakur's widowed daughter-in-law, Radha. Jai is the quiet reflective crook, while Veeru is loud, boisterous, impetuous, and a lothario to boot. The story is about two crooks, Jai and Veeru, in rural central India - a region ravaged by dacoits (outlaws) - who are hired by a village landlord, Thakur to catch Gabbar Singh- a notorious outlaw - alive. However, its adaptation is uniquely Indian and it remains, to my mind, immeasurably superior to the movies it is based upon. The film is a loose adaptation of the Magnificent Seven (itself based on Kurosawa's Seven Samurai) and borrows freely from other movies - Hollywood or Indian. While a couple of films have made more money and recently Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge surpassed Sholay's unprecedented 5 year run at Minerva Theatre in Bombay, Sholay leads by dint of the sheer impact it made on not just Indian cinema, but popular culture in general. ***SOME SPOILERS***** Sholay, directed by Ramesh Sippy in 1975, remains the most successful Hindi (perhaps Indian) film ever made.
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