From Shawshank Redemption to Sholay: Here's a list of iconic jail-break scenes in films

Two undertrials in Tihar Jail, Delhi escaped from the prison through a perimeter wall. They dug their way through and ran out before anyone could catch up with them.

Now be honest with yourself. These above lines could easily have been a scene from a film right? Remember Sholay’s “_Loha garam hai, maar do hathoda” (_strike the iron while it’s hot) and the spine chilling escape from Sriram Raghavan’s Ek Hasina Thi?

Cinema has been portraying jail break in different ways; while some of them are intense, almost nail-bitting, some of them are just downright funny.

On the one hand there are characters like Andy Dufresne, who’s iconic escape from Shawshank prison made for the classic, revered movie, and then there’s also the hilarious scene from Badlapur where Nawazuddin attempts an escape after watching Sholay (the Sholay prison break is another hilarious episode altogether) but fails miserably.

Here’s a list of some of our favorite jail breaks (or attempts) shown on the big screen:

Sholay

There was a whole intricate sub-plot involved in making sure Jai and Veeru escape from jail in Sholay. Unlike movies from the time, the hero couldn’t just escape (you know, by the magic virtue of being a hindi film hero) – they needed a plan and they needed something that could be successful in front of this whacky angrezon ke zamane ka jailer (jailer from the British time).

And so, presenting to you, the famous jail break scene from Sholay. There’s a fake dug up hole, spies inside the jail, a stick posing to be a gun and a lot of Amitabh-Dharmendra swag. One of our favorite scenes from the movie, hands down.

Badlapur

Speaking of Sholay, Nawazuddin’s character in the film Badlapur in the film plays a complex bad guy who is in jail for the murder of Varun Dhawan’s wife. He’s complex because he’s kind of a quirky character: you can’t particularly pin point how good or bad he is as a person, and therein lies the beauty of the film’s extremes.

In the middle of all of this, Nawaz watches the above scene from Sholay while in jail. He gets inspired, and attempts an escape of his own, by getting into a vegetable sack that is making its way out of the jail premises. Obviously, he gets caught. But check out the video, because how he gets caught is hilarious!

Life is Beautiful

Let’s take a moment here to get our serious face on, because an cult movie like Life is Beautiful certainly deserves it. Now, we know a concentration camp is not really a jail, and the trauma that this father-son duo had to go through during the film is deeply upsetting, and moving. (For the uninitiated, this film is set in Nazi-controlled Italy, and a father-son duo are sent to a concentration camp. To keep his son’s spirits high, the father pretends that this whole ordeal is a part of a game that they need to win.)

We couldn’t not include this scene in the list, because nothing comes close to a free escape than the end of the movie where the little boy comes out of his sweat box to find the whole ordeal is over. It’s a tear-jerker guys, grab your tissues.

Ek Hasina Thi

This Sriram Raghavan noir film gave Urmila Matonkar a complete makeover. In the film too, she starts off as a plain-jane city girl who is sent to jail for a crime she didn’t commit. While in jail, she transforms into a hard nut, with a vendetta against the guys who put her in there.

Using the help of a fellow inmate with contacts, she makes her escape very meticulously, but adopting a completely street-smart and chameleon-like attitude. Bone-chilling.

Shawshank Redemption

And the big winner! Shawshank Redemption is a whole, (pretty amazing) film dedicated to prison break. Ofcourse the film is a lot more about human adaptability, growth, the relationship between Andy Dufresne (convicted of murdering his wife) and Ellis Redding (Morgan Freeman) and Freeman’s stellar narrative powers.

But every time you sink into this film, you can’t help but get sucked into their world and even though you know the end, you find yourself at the edge of your metaphorical seat.