Got it at last!

Sholay, the DVD, is what I've got.




I guess it'll have been out on DVD in India well before now, but I didnt bother checking while I was there. The reason being that a DVD bought in India would probably not play on a DVD player bought in the UK. The world is divided into regions and DVDs from one region will not play in another - at least not for long, if the rumours are right.

This is to avoid piracy, apparently... but in practice, all it means is that good American movies and comedy shows that are available in the USA are not available in the UK, and vice versa. I'd SO love to have DVDs or even videos of Steve Martin's stand-up comedy, or Jim Carrey, or Robin Williams, but there's no way to get those here. And equally, there's no point sending across DVDs or videos of Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister, or other BBC classics, to my sister in the USA. As far as I know, that is. If anybody has information to the contrary, puh-leeeese let me know!

Anyway, sourcing and finally getting my Sholay DVD was a loooooong process, mainly involving a lot of waiting on my part. And before the waiting, there was the googling, through which I came across a UK site that sold Indian movies - some old, some new. Mostly new. Not very useful when what I wanted to collect was classics - Padosan, Kagaz ke Phool, Baiju Bawra, Abhimaan... really old movies like those. And, of course, Sholay. What a movie, what a movie, what a MOVIE! And I actually have it in my possession at last. My collection of classic Hindi movies beginneth here. HooRAY!

And talking about Sholay, I'm so used to the movie name in English that the name seen in Hindi seems inadequate and too short, somehow... not expressive enough of the sheer bigness, the breadth, the SCOPE of the movie. It's just a silly notion that I cant seem to get rid of, for whatever reason. Still, I wonder if that can be construed as language chauvinism...