One of the biggest all time hits of bollywood and is a classic. The subtext of the movie being friendship. It is the bollywoods answer to western cowboy classics. The movie is technically sound for its time, it has some really good cinematography. There are flaws in this movie, but I will not dwell upon it. Overall this is a must see a for every bollywood fan.

I managed to see only half of it and fastforwarded the rest. It was a real torture - most of the characters were annoying and cliche, jokes unfunny, generally it was unskilled copy of western cinema with some Indian touches (songs etc.)

My first Bollywood film, and one of the biggest hits in Indian history. The story, extremely similar to that of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (and SEVEN SAMURAI), is relentlessly, frustratingly predictable--but it does have a fundamental power. Ramesh Sippy's direction is decent, but where the film excels is in its most unique aspect: its music. R.D. Burman's songs are delightful ("Yeh Dosti" particularly), and the musical numbers are beautifully staged. Generally solid acting, especially Sanjeev Kumar.

The typical structure of a Bollywood film - three hours or so long, numerous genres - has the potential to create inspired works, but here it undermines this film badly. The last hour or less of Sholay is some of the best of Bollywood cinema I have seen so far, including the famous music sequence involving broken glass, but the middle chapter is dull to sit through. Also in using the Western genre as its template, it sadly seems to take away from the fascinating cultural aspects of the film.

I loved the friendship between Jai and Veeru. It's a shame that friendships like that aren't shown in movies anymore. In the beginning, it took a while for me to get into it, but I'm glad that I stuck with it. Sholay is very entertaining and is hilarious at times. Every actor and actress played their role perfectly. Sholay has everything that I look for in a movie but it is sometimes too violent. At times, it is also quite sexist towards women.

I saw the 204-min cut, which twists and turns as a good Bollywood film should. (Admittedly, for all the brevity of the visual style, the narrative has ziltch.) Genre swings just as wildly, and while some characters are interesting, some that the film dwells on (I'm looking at you, Basanti) are annoying as hell and one-note. For a film of this length, I was hoping for a little more depth.