'Why Was Gabbar Punished?': UP Police's Covid-awareness Twist to Sholay's Clip has Netizens in Splits

The influence of the 1975 film Sholay on the minds of Bollywood lovers is significant. From "Ye Haath Mujhe De De Thakur", "Kitne Aadmi The" to "Basanti! In Kutto Ke Samne Mat Nachna", many dialogues of the film are famous to this date. The basic plotline of the film is that Thakur Baldev Singh’s family was killed by Gabbar who had also cut off Thakur’s arms. Thakur then wants to avenge the murder of his family members and hires two thieves to do the same. The film won several awards and is considered to be a cult classic.

Using the Sholay craze for public service messaging, the Uttar Pradesh Police tweeted a video edit from the iconic film. In the edit, the lead antagonist of the film Gabbar played by Amjad Khan can be seen spitting on the ground a few times. After this, the police officer Thakur played by Sanjeev Kumar chases Gabbar and grabs him. The video edit ends with the warning that spitting in public is an offense as it can increase the risk of Covid-19 infection. It warns viewers to not spit in public.

Sharing the video, UP Police asked, "What was the reason behind Gabbar's punishment?"

The 23-second video has garnered more than 24,000 likes and hundreds of Twitter users have commented on the hilarious video edit.

A Twitter user named Ravish replied to the funny meme by sharing Kapil Dev’s bone tickling statement “Mushkil to nahi keh sakte, lekin tough zaroor ho sakta hai [We cannot say that it is difficult but it might be tough].” Posting Kapil Dev’s quote, he said that this is the reaction of men from Kanpur. The city is famous for its consumption of paan.

Another user posted Amitabh Bachchan’s still from the movie Don from the song Khaike Pan Banaraswala and asked UP police to catch this person.

If we are talking about UP, it is hard to not find memes from the show Mirzapur which is named after a city in the state. A user named Anay reacted to the video edit by posting a still of Kaleen Bhaiya (played by Pankaj Tripathi) in the comments section.

As the memes by Mumbai Police are popular on social media, a user asked if UP Police will start making memes then what will Mumbai Police do?

Many others were concerned about the state of public hygiene in UP. A commenter named Sugandha replied to the video and said that every day they observe people spitting out of their cars in UP.

Police forces across the country using movie memes to spread awareness is not new. Earlier, on Harry Potter's birthday, Pune Police had shared some deleted scenes from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on Twitter to make people aware of cyber security.

The scene shows Professor McGonagall expressing shock at a student named Neville Longbottom who wrote down all the passwords on a page and lost it. In the clip, McGonagall can be seen pulling up the student as others stand there listening to her.

The tweet by Pune Police reads, “The most magical way to keep cyber threat at bay - keep your passwords to yourself. Always.”