Sholay revisited - Bollywood classic

This weekend, the classic 1975 Bollywood crime thriller Sholay re-released in the 3D format. Sholay stands out as an iconic evergreen cult classic which features the most remembered villain character - the bandit leader Gabbar.

Gabbar was played by the late actor Amjad Khan. Gabbar's seemingly simple dialogues became so popular, they were often used in jokes and light conversations. One of the most remembered scenes of all Indian movies, is the "Kitne aadmi the ?" scene i.e "How many men were there ?"

Let me explain the scene to you in short. Gabbar's 3 loyal dacoits went to loot a village and extort money from innocent people. However, the 2 protaganists Jay (played by Amitabh Bachchan) & Veeru (played by Dharmendra) , fight them off, so the 3 henchmen return empty handed. The dacoit leader Gabbar gets extremely angry and frustrated by hearing this. What follows is a scene in which the 3 dacoits have to pay a heavy price for coming back empty handed.

Another famous intense scene is the "Ye haat humko dede thakur" which translates to "Give me your hands, thakur". Here Gabbar chops off the thakur's hands with swords.

As a tribute to the classic scene, check out this funny Sholay meme featuring some Indian students.

India House - Santa Fe, New Mexico

Parts of the Bollywood film 'Kites' starring Hrithik Roshan & Barbara Mori, were shot in and around Albuquerque & Santa Fe... and from what am aware of is that the India House served as its lunch catering partner. The moment you enter the restaurant, you see pictures of the owner with actor Hrithik Roshan, film producer Rakesh Roshan & director Anurag Basu etc... Boy, Bollywood is going places and so is the Indian Empire :)

It feels nice to actually find a good Indian restaurant in a region which is surrounded mostly by desert. A city where you come across just a couple of Indian food establishments. So well, somewhere around December of 2011, we a group of 4 people went to this place. We started with paneer pakoras, tandoori chicken wings, cheese fingers for apps. Next we shared bhindi masala, paneer makhani & dal makhani with Indian breads like kashmiri naan, aloo paratha, garlic naan etc... Finally ended our stuffed dinners with desserts - gulab jamun, kheer, mango lassi etc.

Website : http://indiahousenm.com/

Address:

2501 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
Phone: (505) 471-2651   Fax: (505) 471-2162

John Abraham married!

If you check out Bollywood superstar John Abraham's official twitter handle, you see the words : Love, John and Priya Abraham (nee Runchal). The very fact that Priya has changed her surname to Abraham indicates that they have married in the US.

Priya Runchal is an investment banker, whom John started dating after splitting up with Bipasha Basu in 2011. John and Bipasha were one of the Bollywood's power-couple who were together since a decade.

Salman Khan - Indian Superstar

Happy birthday Salman Khan. Just the other day, I was watching the trailer of Salman Khan's new movie "Jai Ho", which already has more than 12.5 lakh views on youtube since 2 weeks of upload date. While watching I remembered an action scene from one of his movies. I didn't immediately recall the movie name so I checked his filmography on IMDB. And Viola! the movie name was Wanted.

Salman Khan is one actor who has been active in Bollywood for about 2 decades starring in many average-to-flop films. However, it was only after his blockbuster Wanted in 2009 that lady luck smiled on him. Since then, he has constantly given great blockbuster hits like Bodyguard, Dabangg, Ready, Ek Tha Tiger and the most recent Dabangg 2. With every movie he's been setting a new benchmark for the box office collections.

In Dabangg, he stars as a corrupt but lovable cop. He believes in swift justice and dispenses it instantly.
He is a bad guy for the bad guys but a good man to all good innocent people. He robs from the villains but helps the needy and poor. His character was very much styled on the lines of Robin Hood, in terms of morality. That's what made him lovable.

It was in this film that certain things became iconic. His unique dance steps. His moustache. The action scenes in defunct warehouses. The "Smile Please" comic photographer. His Sunglasses.

Regarding his sunglasses, he always sports them on his shirt collar behind. I believe this fashion has attained a unique cult status among the audience. Many people have been emulating it since the movie. Check out this random photo clicked on a street of Mumbai.

Dhoom 3 - Bollywood's record breaking Blockbuster

Dhoom 3 - India's latest action thriller has broken all the box office records till date. People are constantly flocking to the theatres to watch the movie in hordes. As of today it is said to have already the ambitions INR 300 crore mark (approx. USD 3.5 million)

As per this Bollywood Hungama article, it has broken all the box office collection records for the Opening Day, Opening weekend, Highest Single day collection and all the collections of key international markets like USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand.

Dhoom 3 happens to be one of the costliest sequel in the Dhoom franchise, set in Chicago & Mumbai. Some critics also call it India's answer to Fast & Furious. The acting, the visuals, the stunts, the songs, the mystery are all top-notch and too impressive.

Plot wise, many movie-goers describe the latest blockbuster as a mashup of Christopher Nolan's The Prestige and some elements of The Dark Knight.

This bike-action thriller also features some uber cool BMW bikes like Aamir Khan's BMW K 1300 R and Uday Chopra / Abhishek Bachchan's BMW S 1000 RR. 

I bet the movie will boost BMW's bike sales due to a tremendous spike in the consumer interest, following the movie's success.