Deewaar was both critically and commercially successful, with praise going towards the film's screenplay, story, and music, as well as the performances of the acting ensemble, particularly Bachchan, Kapoor and Roy's performances. It is often considered a ground-breaking cinematic masterpiece, with Indiatimes ranking Deewaar amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films,[15] as well as being one of three Hindi-language films to be included on the list of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.
The film had a significant impact on Indian cinema, as well as wider Indian society, with the film's anti-establishment themes and Bachchan's criminal anti-herovigilante character resonating with audiences,[16] cementing Bachchan's popular image as the "angry young man" of Bollywood cinema.[17][18]Forbes included Bachchan's performance in the film on its list, "25 Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema".[19] The film also cemented the success of the writing duo Salim-Javed, who went on to write many more blockbuster films; the value of film writers skyrocketed thanks to Salim-Javed, who were paid as highly as leading actors at the time.[20]Deewaar's influence also extends to world cinema, influencing films from Hong Kong[21] and British cinema.[13]
Plot
The film begins with a depiction of the strong leadership of trade union leader named Anand Verma (Satyen Kappu), who works hard to enhance the lives of struggling labourers. He lives in a modest home with his wife named Sumitra (Nirupa Roy) and their two young sons named Vijay and Ravi. However, things take a turn for the worse when Anand is blackmailed by a corrupt businessman named Badri Prasad (Kamal Kapoor), who threatens to kill his family if Anand does not cease his protest activities. Forced into compliance, Anand is despised and nearly beaten to death for his betrayal by the very same labourers, who are unaware that he was blackmailed to do so, and persecute Anand's family as well. Unable to bear the humiliation, Anand escapes from the government hospital where he is recovering and spends the rest of his life aimlessly travelling in a train, deserting his family for whom he had abandoned his principles and ideals. Meanwhile, several of the angry labourers kidnap Vijay and tattoo his left arm with the Hindi words "मेरा बाप चोर है" (English: "My father is a thief"). Not knowing what else to do, Sumitra helplessly brings Vijay and Ravi to Mumbai and resorts to a low-wage manual labour to raise her sons. Their home is on the footpath under a huge bridge which is home to millions of homeless urban poor who have been driven out in attempts at city development by the state.
As the two brothers grow up to be young men in the slums of Mumbai, Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) has an acute awareness of his father's failure as he has been victimized for his father's supposed misdeeds and is reminded of his past in the ever-present tattoo on his arm. Ravi (Shashi Kapoor), on the other hand, is a perfect citizen and is unwavering in his commitment to law and righteousness. Through his hard work and commitment to the letter and spirit of the law, Ravi is integrated into a respectable middle-class social environment and is united with his love named Veera (Neetu Singh), who is the daughter of DCP Narang (Manmohan Krishna). Meanwhile, Vijay begins out as a shoe polisher and later becomes a dockyard labourer in the process of fighting for his rights. When Vijay beats up the several henchmen of a merciless crime lord named Samant (Madan Puri), one of Samant's rivals named Mulk Raj Daavar (Iftekhar) is influenced to bring Vijay to his inner-circle. When Vijay successfully completes a task in capturing several of Samant's goods from his warehouse for Daavar, the latter rewards him with a huge sum of money, allowing Vijay to purchase a bungalow home for his family. While continuing on his assignments for Daavar, Vijay also sacrifices his own education to enable Ravi to study. As Ravi completes his education, he is sent for police training by Veera's father and earns the rank of Sub-Inspector after a few months.
When Ravi returns home, Veera's father provides him with his first assignment to apprehend and arrest some of the hardcore criminals and smugglers in Mumbai which also includes his brother, Vijay. Ravi is deeply shocked as he had never associated his own brother with criminal activities and must now decide between apprehending Vijay and quitting the police force. He is initially reluctant of going against his own brother, but is later moved when he shoots a poor boy having stolen a few loaves of bread in the leg non-fatally in an attempt to stop him from running. When a remorseful Ravi visits the boy's family at their home, offering them some rotis and confessing his action, the boy's angry mother berates Ravi and accuses him of colluding with the state in protecting those who store goods in warehouses, and hunting down petty thieves trying to feed their starving families. However, the boy's father (A. K. Hangal), who is a retired schoolteacher, forgives Ravi and justifies the shooting by stating that the stealing no matter of a "lakh" or of food is a crime, and that all criminals should be treated equally and it would lead to anarchy if all the poor and needy resort to the same life, which finally motivates Ravi to agree to take the case from Veera's father. When Ravi investigates that Vijay has accquired wealth by crime, he decides to move out from the bungalow home purchased by Vijay for the two brothers being on the opposite sides of the law. Sumitra too is disgusted with the situation and even refuses to accept Vijay's gift of the high-rise apartment where she had once worked as a manual labourer, and chooses instead to live with her honest younger son in his police quarters.
Ravi then takes the opportunity to complete his task assigned by Veera's father in taking down and arresting many associates from both Samant and Daavar's gangs and even Daavar himself is arrested by Ravi. Shouldering past the loss of the company of his mother and brother and many of his associates, Vijay enters into an intimate relationship with a young woman named Anita (Parveen Babi), whom he meets at a bar. Around the same time, Anand's dead body is discovered inside the train and his last rites are performed by Vijay. As Vijay, Ravi and Sumitra lament the tragic loss of Anand, Anita advises Vijay to erase the tattoo on his arm through plastic surgery, but Vijay refuses by stating that doing so would not erase his fate in the past. Further, Anita reveals to Vijay that she is pregnant with his child, and that she would not force him to marry her and would raise the child by herself. However, Vijay, not wishing anyone to tattoo on the arm of their child that his father is a thief, decides to abandon his life in the underworld so that he can marry Anita, confess his sins to the police and seek forgiveness from Veera, her father, Sumitra and Ravi.
However, in a cruel twist of fate, Samant and his remaining henchmen arrive and murder Anita in revenge. After a tearful moment, Anita dies in the arms of Vijay, who is enraged to discover Samant's cigar next to her, and retaliates by storming into his apartment and brutally murdering Samant and his remaining henchmen, leading himself to be branded a criminal forever. Sumitra, who had always sided with Ravi despite the fact that Vijay was her favourite, is tormented by Vijay's decisions and rejects him. When the two brothers meet for a final clash outside Samant's apartment in the middle of the night, Ravi pleads Vijay to stop running and surrender himself and ends up shooting him in the arm fatally in the process. Following this development, a grievously injured and slowly dying Vijay uses a car as a getaway vehicle to escape from Ravi and has it crashed into the wall of a temple, where he reunites with Sumitra and pleads forgiveness. Vijay then breathes his last in Sumitra's arms, leaving her extremely shattered, just as Ravi arrives at the temple as well and is completely distraught over his action towards Vijay. The film ends with Veera's father and the Maharashtra police presenting an award to Ravi along with Veera and Sumitra for his successful actions of pursuing justice and taking down the criminals though Ravi's mind is still filled with remorse for killing Vijay.
The film's screenplay, story and dialogues were written by Salim–Javed (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar). The main inspiration for the film's plot was the Dilip Kumar starrer film Gunga Jumna (1961), which had a similar premise of two brothers on opposing sides of the law, with the older criminal brother as the main character.[22][23]Deewaar is thus considered to be a spiritual successor to Gunga Jumna.[24] Salim-Javed credited Gunga Jumna as well as Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957) as the main inspirations for Deewaar, which they described as a "more urban, much more contemporary" take on their themes; while Mother India and Gunga Jumna took place in a rural context, Salim–Javed reinterpreted their themes in a contemporary urban context with Deewaar.[25]
Salim–Javed's screenplay had dynamic dialogues and incorporated a number of symbolic motifs. For example, the scene where the two brothers meet as adults takes place under a bridge, symbolizing a bridge forming between the brothers.[16] Set in the Dharavislums of Mumbai, the film's story of gangsters in Dharavi was a critique of socio-political inequality and injustice in Mumbai.[12] The characterisations of the two brothers are sociologically contextualised to represent a form of urban conflict and drama, aimed at presenting a causal explanation for the sequence of events and Vijay's social alienation, with the narrative explaining his every action and decision, grounded in his memories and experiences.[11]
The script generally has an atmosphere of secularism, while incorporating subtle religious motifs.[16] The mother Sumitra (Nirupa Roy) and police brother Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) are religious Hindus, whereas the criminal brother Vijay (Bachchan) is generally not religious and "upset with God", yet he carries a badge numbered 786 which his Muslimco-worker, Rahim Chacha (Yunus Parvez), points out to be a number of religious significance in Islam[16] (representing Bismillah) and has its own subplot.[21] The 786 badge plays a powerful and symbolic role in several scenes,[16] saving Vijay at key moments[27] and signifying something ominous when he loses it.[16]
Salim-Javed initially showed the script to Bachchan, who they had in mind for Vijay's role after having worked with him on Zanjeer (1973). At the time, Bachchan was working on another film with Yash Chopra, and told him about the script. After some initial scepticism, Chopra was eventually convinced to direct the film after Salim-Javed narrated the storyline to him.[16]
Casting and filming
Bachchan's "angry young man" performance as Vijay in the film was inspired by Dilip Kumar's intense performance as Gunga in Gunga Jumna, which Bachchan sharpened and reinterpreted in a contemporary urban context reflecting the changing socio-political climate of 1970s India.[28][29]
Salim-Javed "felt only Bachchan could do justice to Vijay's role." According to Akhtar, they "saw his talent, which most makers didn't. He was exceptional, a genius actor who was in films that weren't good." At Salim-Javed's insistence, Bachchan was cast in the role.[16] Director Yash Chopra's first choices for Vijay and Ravi's roles were Dev Anand and Rajesh Khanna respectively. After Anand rejected the script, casting plans changed and Khanna was to play Vijay and Navin Nischol was considered for Ravi. However, Salim-Javed had Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha in mind when they wrote the script; Sinha turned down the film when he heard Khanna was initially cast in the lead, due to a fallout between the two. Nirupa Roy's role as Sumitra Devi was also first offered to Vyjayanthimala; Nischol and Vyjayanthimala turned down the film after they found out Khanna would no longer be in the film. Shashi Kapoor was subsequently cast as Ravi, and Nirupa Roy as Sumitra Devi.[30]
In 2014, Bachchan revealed that his iconic look in the film – a "denim blue shirt worn with khakee pants and a rope dangling over the shoulder" – was the result of a mistake by the tailor. He said, "The knotted shirt and rope on the shoulder in [Deewaar] was an adjustment for an error in stitching, shirt too long so knotted it".[31] In certain scenes, Bachchan had some input on Chopra's direction, such as the father's funeral scene where Bachchan, instead of lighting the pyre with his right hand, suggests to use his left hand to show off the tattoo, "Mera baap chor hai" ("My father is a thief").[16] The film was shot mostly at night because Bachchan was shooting for Ramesh Sippy's Sholay at that time.[32]
The film contains a fight scene,[33] which involves Bachchan performing martial arts sequences inspired by Hong Kong martial arts cinema, which Deewaar was one of the first to do in Indian cinema.[34][35] Rather than following the Hollywood model, it follows the Hong Kong model, with an emphasis on acrobatics and stunts. The style of fighting seen in Deewaar combined kung fu (as it was perceived by Indians) with Indian martial arts (particularly Indian wrestling).[36]
At the Indian box office, the film grossed ₹75 million[37] ($9million).[a] In Mumbai alone, the film grossed ₹10 million.[39] In terms of footfalls, the film sold an estimated 31 million tickets at an average 1975 price of ₹2.40 per ticket.[40]Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent to an estimated ₹4.17 billion ($64 million) at an average 2017 price of ₹134.38 per ticket.[41]
Numerous DVD editions entered the market by companies like "Eros Entertainment", "Shemaroo Entertainment" and "Eagle Home Video". These were released as non-restored, non re-mastered editions and bare bones, void of supplementary features. Eagle Home Video came out with a restored edition of this movie, preserving the original aspect ratio in a 4:3 pillar box and a DTS Master Audio (HD) in 2.0. The restoration took place in Shemaroo studios.[citation needed]
Upon release, Deewaar was a major commercial success, ranking as the fourth highest-grossing Bollywood film of 1975,[42] and received critical acclaim, with critics praising the story, dialogue, screenplay, as well as the performances of the cast, particularly those of Bachchan, Kapoor and Roy. Indiatimes ranks Deewaar amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.[15] It was one of the three Hindi films featured in the 2017 edition of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the others being Mother India (1957) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995).[43]
It was perceived by audiences to be anti-establishment, while Amitabh Bachchan's character Vijay was seen as a vigilante angry hero, establishing Bachchan's image as the "angry young man" of Indian cinema.[16] With the unprecedented growth of slums across India at the time, Vijay was seen as a new kind of hero, with his suppressed rage giving a voice to the angst of the urban poor.[11][12]Deewaar is also remembered for its iconic dialogues written by Salim-Javed. The most famous is when Shashi Kapoor delivers the line, "Mere paas maa hai" ("I have mother"), a line that is widely known in India and has become part of Indian popular culture.[44][45] The film Loins of Punjab Presents (2007) mocked how the line is sometimes wrongly attributed to Amitabh Bachchan.[46] It also established Parveen Babi as the "new Bollywood woman".[47]
The film cemented the success of the writing duo Salim-Javed, who went on to write many more blockbuster films. After the success of this film, the value of film writers skyrocketed thanks to Salim-Javed, and they soon were being paid as highly as some actors at the time.[20] Amitabh Bachchan described Salim-Javed's screenplay for Deewaar as "the perfect script"[16] and "the best screenplay ever" in Indian cinema.[9]Deewaar, one of the first Indian films with an action sequence modelled after Hong Kong martial arts cinema, popularised the use of martial arts sequences in Bollywood films from the 1970s to the 1990s.[34] The style of fighting popularised by Deewaar, with acrobatics and stunts, and combining Chinese kung fu (as it was perceived by Indians, based on 1970s Hong Kong films) with Indian pehlwani wrestling, became the standard model for Bollywood action scenes up until the 1990s.[36]
The film was later remade in Telugu as Magaadu (1976), in Tamil as Thee (1981), in Malayalam as Nathi Muthal Nathi Vare (1983), in Persian as Koose-ye Jonoob (1978), and in Turkish as Acıların Çocuğu (1985). Another remake of Deewaar was the 1994 Bollywood film Aatish: Feel the Fire, starring Sanjay Dutt as the older criminal brother, Atul Agnihotri as the younger police brother, and Tanuja as the mother.[48] Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers studio remade Deewaar as The Brothers (1979),[21] which in turn inspired John Woo's internationally acclaimed breakthrough A Better Tomorrow (1986).[49]The Brothers also starred a Hong Kong actor that would later be known for heroic bloodshed films, Danny Lee (playing Shashi Kapoor's character), with a police officer persona later seen in Hong Kong crime films such as Woo's The Killer (1989).[21]
British director Danny Boyle described Deewaar as being "absolutely key to Indian cinema" and cited the film as an influence on his Academy Award winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008).[13] The film's co-director Loveleen Tandan noted that "Simon Beaufoy studied Salim-Javed's kind of cinema minutely."[51] Actor Anil Kapoor noted that some scenes of Slumdog Millionaire "are like Deewaar, the story of two brothers of whom one is completely after money while the younger one is honest and not interested in money."[52]Slumdog Millionaire, which pays homage to Amitabh Bachchan, has a similar narrative structure to Deewaar. Composer A. R. Rahman referenced the film in his Oscar acceptance speech.[46]
Lal, Vinay. "Deewaar (The Wall)." Revised excerpt from The Secret Politics of Our Desires: Innocence, Culpability, and Indian Popular Cinema, ed. Ashish Nandy. London: Zed Press and Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 228–59
Mazumdar, Ranjani. Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
^Runna Ashish Bhutda; Ashwini Deshmukh; Kunal M Shah; Vickey Lalwani; Parag Maniar; Subhash K Jha (13 January 2009). "The Slumdog Millionaire File". Mumbai Mirror. Archived from the original on 8 May 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2009.
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