Ramesh Sippy's Sholay stands towering as the monolith that is emblematic of the all-encompassing emotional rollercoaster that is Hindi cinema. The film follows two inseparable jailbirds, Jai and Veeru (played by Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan) who are hired by a former Inspector “Thakur\" (Sanjeev Kumar) to kill the infamous dacoit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) and avenge the massacre of his family. The aforementioned synopsis by the famous Salim-Javed duo was rejected by many filmmakers before Ramesh Sippy decided to direct the film. The film received unfavourable reviews from critics in its day due to the gratuitous violence displayed, and trade pundits declared that the film wouldn't succeed because it lacked the \"Maa\" trope which was in vogue at the time, in the wake of the success of contemporaneous films such as Jai Santoshi Ma and Deewar . Despite these initial setbacks, the mammoth production became the cultural milestone it is today. Sholay combined the landscape of Spaghetti Westerns of Hollywood and the conflicts of dacoit films uniquely indigenous to India to give rise to what is now termed \"Curry Western\". The uninhibited depiction of violence by both the protagonists and the antagonist was an attempt to capture the breakdown of law and order in the Hindi Belt, home of most of the film's major chunk of audience. It portrayed a society where a former policeman, disillusioned with the system, had to turn to vigilante violence to obtain justice. The film captures the mood of the nation in the mid-70's where trust in institutions was at an all-time low. This sentiment was reflected in the popularity of Jai Prakash Narayan's call for Total Revolution, which started in Bihar and swept all of North India. It questioned the legitimacy of Indira Gandhi's government, resulting in her proclamation of Emergency two months before the film's release. Sholay's narrative, with its themes of vigilante justice and social hierarchy, resonated deeply with audiences living through these tumultuous times.