What Sholay says about 1970s India https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/what-sholay-says-about-1970s-india-101754836643574.html By
Rajni Bakshi (Read the whole article to check if I am not twisting the tale)
Sholay was released on Independence Day in 1975. the Emergency was declared on June 25, 1975. .The producers of Sholay changed the ending . the police , persuade Thakur to not kill Gabbar. (A sign of the Time or the future?)
Earlier, Hindi films critiqued the system of governance in order to project stories of rebellion or idealistic struggle. In Sholay, there is no samaj (society)..(.Just ) raw, personal, need for revenge versus Gabbar as an individual.
In India after Sholay, the validation and celebration of vengeance, by individuals and collectives, became a cultural and political phenomenon. ...The political discourse, using digital era propaganda mechanisms, has generated collective forms of victimhood and projected vengeance as both natural and justified.
a wide variety of audio-visual media.. now appears to be a collective bloodlust. ... ... mass acceptance of vengeance makes restoration of the justice system increasingly difficult or even impossible. (Check out ideas on this in https://www.youtube.com/@AhimsaConversations - ab tak 138 views)
... the rejected original ending of Sholay, which can be found on YouTube. For, this version leaves us with some difficult questions. After Thakur succeeds in killing Gabbar, he crumbles to the ground looking stunned. As Viru, the surviving hired-gun, tries to comfort him, Thakur breaks down and sobs bitterly. ..is Thakur also weeping because his victory somehow feels empty?ssed are personal
Rahul Gandhi Evolution From 1970 To 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Pn2jhCaTo
St Xavier’s College cancels Stan Swamy lecture after ABVP protests https://scroll.in/latest/1085385/mumbai-st-xaviers-college-cancels-stan-swamy-lecture-after-abvp-protests The lecture, titled “Migration for Livelihood: Hope amidst Miseries”, was to be delivered virtually by Father Prem Xalxo, professor of Theology at the Gregorian University in Rome.
On Tuesday, the ABVP unit in Mumbai stated a group of its workers had met with the principal of St Xavier’s College and submitted a letter demanding the “immediate cancellation” of the lecture. “ABVP firmly believes that organising a lecture in memory of a person accused in the Elgar Parishad–Bhima Koregaon case, facing UAPA charges for links with banned Maoist groups, is an attempt to glorify urban Naxalism on campus,” said the Hindutva group.
Frazer Mascarenhas, a former principal of St Xavier’s College, said the cancellation of the lecture was “saddening”. “The ABVP accusations against Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy are totally unfounded because the Pune Police and then the NIA have so far only made allegations against him and have been unable to prove them in a court for more than five years,” said Mascarenhas. He added: “In fact, the case has not yet begun and may be delayed eternally for fear of being thrown out as fabricated.”
Noting that the constitutional provisions do not function under the “rule of the mob”, the former principal said that Swamy’s contributions towards the cause of Adivasi empowerment should be written about widely.