Seshadri's Musings

More web-series reviews… Number one on the Call Sheet – Came in 2025. A documentary. Intimate interviews with top Black Hollywood actors reveal career challenges, achievements, life-changing moments, and success stories. They honor legends while reflecting on the next generation's potential. A review from Times of India... ‘Number One on the Call Sheet’ brings together Hollywood’s most influential Black artists for a compelling exploration of their journeys. Featuring interviews with legends like Denzel Washington, Daniel Kaluuya, Whoopi Goldberg, Viola Davis, and Alfre Woodard, this documentary delves into their struggles and triumphs in an industry historically dominated by white actors. Divided into two feature-length episodes, one focusing on male actors and the other on female actors, the film sheds light on their rise from the bottom of the call sheet to the coveted top spot—reserved for the lead performer and often the highest-paid talent on set. Their stories embody ...

Sholay was released on 15 th August 1975.   From 30 th May to 15 th August, the Film trade magazine had an ad depicting one character from Sholay each week!!   And the final ad depicted the entire cast of the movie!! Sholay was the first movie to be released in 70mm in India.   During the premier, the 70mm print had still not reached the theatre as some bureaucrat sat on the print because has had not been given due importance!! The print was developed in London and was sent from there.   Sippys had to speak to the then Information & Broadcasting minister to get the prints out.   The initial premier was seen on 35mm print and the 70mm print was seen by very few people late at night.   Prakash Mehra was one of the viewers.   After watching the movie, he cursed himself as to why he had let go of this film!! Initially reports came in that unprecedented crowd was witnessed all across Bombay for the movie and they had not seen such a rush since Mugh...

Second-last write-up on Sholay!!  Don’t worry, there is only one more blog left to write on this topic 😊 Feroz Khan’s “Khotey Sikkey” which came before Sholay also was a story where Feroz Khan hires 5 petty criminals to nab the dacoit Ajit!!  Joginder, another actor and director, complained that the story is similar to his “Bindiya aur Bandook”!!  The massacre of Thakur’s family was inspired by a similar scene in “Once upon a time in the West” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ptjc9Vono4 . Actual scene in Sholay can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkDFAC2WbEs from 5:55 mark to 10:55mark!! Viru’s tank scene was inspired by a movie called “The Secret of Santa Vittoria” featuring Anthony Quinn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaIdjUTa9yU . And the Sholay scene here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbZZecTFlW4 Viru’s tank scene was written by Javed Akhtar while driving to Bangalore airport from the shooting scene.  He then kept on writing the scene on ...

Sholay was written in such a way that every character that you find in the movie leaves you with memories.   These author-backed characters acted as if the part was specially written for them only! A majority of them had a very small part in the movie, but thanks to the dialogues that they had to mouth, the have been heralded in fame!! I have provided below some interesting tidbits of some of the characters from the movie below.  I hope you too would have the same enjoyment as I had in collating these!!  The sources are the same as my previous blogs. Once Viju Khote was walking on a road with his son.  Some people pointed out to him and began calling him as Kaalia, Kaalia.  The son got angry and told his father that he does not like that.  Viju Khote told him, because of Kaalia only we have refrigerators and TV’s in our home!! Without Kaalia, we would not have been where we are now!!  Viju Khote was immortalized by the dialogue – “Ab Tera Kya Hoga,...

You will be surprised to know that Salim-Javed as well as RD Burman took inspirations from different sources to make this film.   Thanks to Internet now, we can actually find out from where all their inspirations came from!!   Of course, it still doesn’t matter!!   The fact is that Sholay is the greatest movie ever made!!    Some facts mentioned below have been sourced from the book “Written by Salim-Javed – The Story of Hindi Cinema’s Greatest Screenwriters” by Diptakirti Chaudhuri and the rest from Internet. Hariram Naii (Naii in Hindi means barber) was the name of the barber who used to come to Salim Khan’s house when he was a kid.  He used to come regularly and used to cut the hair of all the kids at the house at a discount.  When the character of a barber came in Sholay, he was aptly named Hariram Naii (Keshto Mukherjee) Salim Khan’s father was a police officer. At that time there was a particularly cruel story about a legendary dacoit who use...

Yesterday I saw Sholay the Final Cut, in theatres. Saw the movie on screen after having watched it 50 years ago 😊 !  Including this, the next 5 blogs would come on a daily basis and would feature the best movie of all times 😊 !  I had written them in April-May 2019 in my blog and it seems to be an apt time to repeat all of them again! An Army officer’s family is massacred. He remembers two junior officers who were court martialed.   They were rascals but also brave.   The retired officer decided to enlist them in his mission for revenge. With these 4 lines of story, somewhere in 1972-73, started the birth of a movie called Sholay, unarguably the best movie of all times, according to me 😊😊.  When it got released in 1975, it was announced as “The Greatest Star Cast Ever Assembled! The Greatest Story Ever Told”. Apparently, the movie cost Rs 3 crores to make at that time and made Rs 25 crores for the Sippy family, during its run!!   In the current monetary...

More web-series reviews… Khauf – Came in 2025. A young woman's hostel room in Delhi hides a history of violence. Haunted by her past, she battles inexplicable forces within the room's confines and beyond. A review from IMDB... Amazon Prime Video's Khaunf is a rare gem in the horror genre-an atmospheric, unsettling, and deeply layered series that blends psychological terror with social commentary. Created with a sharp vision, this series goes beyond conventional jump scares to explore the real horrors that lurk within society, and it does so with striking originality. From the outset, Khaunf distinguishes itself through its unique narrative and visual storytelling. Kudos to the writer and director for crafting a story that doesn't just rely on supernatural elements but also grounds its fear in real-world issues. This balance between fiction and reality is what makes the series so powerful. The horror here is not just what hides in the dark, but what exists in pl...

I started working from 1991 and all through, the medical insurance was being taken care of by the various companies I worked in. In 1999, I was in between jobs and that is the time when I got into a trouble and had to be hospitalized.   There was no medical insurance for me and I had to pay around 40K from my pocket for the hospital visit.   Within a week of discharge, I called an insurance company and went for a private medical insurance for me and my family.   After getting another job, I got insured by the company. But I still continued paying the premium for my private medical insurance.   After some years, I changed my insurer to a different company and maintained paying the insurance premiums. Continuing from the previous blog, by 1230pm I was told by the duty nurse that all the files have been sent to the Billing team and now the ball was in their court.  I was told that the insurance would take some 3-4 hours. Just to be sure, I called up the billing p...