The iconic film in Indian film history, ‘Sholay’, is still loved by the Indian audience. This film directed by Ramesh Sippy and written by Javed Akhtar was recently a topic of discussion due to a statement made by famous writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar. Javed Akhtar had attended a Diwali special program, Deepotsav, organized by politician Raj Thackeray of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
There he talked about many topics, like freedom of speech and the Hindu god and goddess Ram, Sita etc. Nowadays, freedom of speech is a really delicate thing, so that someone’s single sentence can hurt somebody else’s sentiment. While talking about freedom of speech, he smartly explained the topics in front of listeners. He cited the example of the film Sholay. In the film Sholay, there is one scene of Dharmendra and Hema Malini where Hema Malini prays to Lord Shiva as she wanted a good husband for her. Dharmendra i.e. Veeru in the film hides himself behind the statue of lord Shiva and makes the impression of lord Shiva, which is eventually exposed by his friend Jai, played by Amitabh Bachchan.
The scene has a complete humorous touch and the makers made it comedy, keeping the intentions clear. But as Javed Akhtar said, this scene would have created a brawl if a movie was made today. It would have turned into a controversy. Now society has changed a lot and sensitivity amongst the community has increased. Thus, any little thing may offend anyone. And therefore, it is true that freedom of expression nowadays is a very fragile thing.
Talking about the film, it gained tremendous success. Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri and Sanjeev Kumar, these star casts acted really well. Apart from this, the writing of the film, its dialogues, which are still recited by many, amazing songs which made the Indian audience vibe on it. This everything has made the film Sholay successful.
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