Ramesh Sippy's Sholay , the cult Bollywood film, turned 35 on Sunday.
It was on Independence Day more than three decades back that Sippy's third film opened to lukewarm response, but soon word spread about the movie. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The cast included the who's who of Bollywood — the leading pairs of the 70s, Dharmendra and Hema Malini as Veeru and Basanti, the versatile Sanjeev Kumar as Thakur, upcoming star Amitabh Bachchan, as Jai, who had proved his acting prowess in Anand and Zanjeer
Though the entire cast put up a stellar performance, it was Amjad Khan as the ferocious dacoit Gabbar Singh who captured the country's imagination.
Dialogues like ‘ Hum angrezon ke zamaane ke jailor hain ' (Asrani); ‘ Kitne aadmi the? ' (Amjad); ‘ Sardar, maine aapka namak khaya hai ' (Viju Khote); and ‘ Basanti inn kutto ke saamne mat nachna ' (Dharmendra) remain favourites even today.
One of Sholay 's most memorable characters was a dacoit named Samba, played by Mac Mohan who passed away earlier this year. His dialogue, “ poore pachaas hazaar ” has been used innumerable times in satires and spoofs.
