The highest grossing film of all time in India, SHOLAY is a must see for film fans the world over. Amitabh Bachchan plays one of two petty criminals who are recruited by former police chief Thakur to end the tyranny of local bandit Gabbar Singh, who is one of the famous villains in Indian cinema. With SHOLAY, Bachchan establishes his angry young man persona, a manifestation of India’s turbulent 70s with a heavy influence of spaghetti westerns and American cop drama. Indeed, in SHOLAY’s year of production and release, 1975, Indira Gandhi’s government was accused of corruption and in response declared a State of Emergency where opposition, trade unionists and political activists were all imprisoned. More than just a brooding symbol of hard times, Bachchan represents a link between the modern and the traditional, the East and the West, and a crisis of post-colonial nationalism.