Deewaar was released worldwide on 24 January 1975 to critical acclaim and praise for its story, script, music cast performances (especially Bachchan, Kapoor and Roy). The film was commercially successful and is considered a ground-breaking cinematic masterpiece, with India Times ranking Deewaar amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films. It is also one of three Hindi-language films to be included on the list of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.[14]
The film had a significant impact not only on Indian cinema but also on Indian society; its anti-establishment themes and Bachchan's anti-herovigilante character resonated with audiences. The movie cemented Bachchan's popular image as the 'Angry young man' of Bollywood cinema.[15][16][17]Forbes included Bachchan's performance in the film on its list of "25 Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema".[18] The film also cemented the success of Salim–Javed, who went on to write more blockbuster films; their value skyrocketed and they were being paid as well as the leading actors of the time.[19]Deewaar's influence also extends to world cinema, influencing films from Hong Kong[20] and British cinema.[12][21]
Plot
Anand Verma (Satyen Kappu) resides in a modest home with his wife, Sumitra Verna (Nirupa Roy), and their two young sons, Vijay Verna (Alankar Joshi) and Ravi Verma (Raju Shrestha). He is a principled and well-respected trade union leader, who leads struggling labourers on a strike as they are depending on him to better their lives with concessions from their owner, Badri Prasad (Kamal Kapoor). However, Badri Prasad retaliates by kidnapping Anand's family and forcing him to sign a contract giving away the labourers' rights, in order to save his family's lives. When the striking labourers learn about Anand's actions, they all curse him and thrash him nearly to death, unaware that Anand was threatened to do so. Meanwhile, the enraged labourers also persecute Anand's family, and some of them drunkenly capture Vijay and tattoo his left arm with the Hindi words "मेरा बाप चोर है" (English: "My father is a thief"). Unable to bear the humiliation, Anand escapes from the town and decides to spend his remaining life aimlessly travelling in trains, abandoning his family for whom he had abandoned his principles and ideals. In desperation, Sumitra brings Vijay and Ravi to Mumbai and resorts to low-wagemanual labour to raise her sons as a single mother. Their home is on the footpath under a huge bridge that is home to millions of homeless urban poor.
As Vijay Verma and Ravi Verma grow up in the slums of Mumbai, Vijay Verma (Amitabh Bachchan) has an acute awareness of his father's humiliation, for he has been victimised for his father's supposed misdeeds, and is reminded of his past by the ever-present tattoo on his arm. He also refuses to enter a temple, stating that he wishes to chart his own destiny and not beg for it from the deity. Vijay starts out as a shoeshiner and later becomes a shipyard labourer in his youth, sacrificing his own education in order to enable Ravi Verma (Shashi Kapoor) to study. On the other hand, Ravi is a perfect citizen and is unwavering in his commitment to law and righteousness. Although all his attempts at receiving a job are in vain, Ravi romances Veera (Neetu Singh), the daughter of DCP Narang (Manmohan Krishna), by whom he is sent for police training and soon earns the rank of Sub-Inspector. In the process of fighting for his rights, Vijay refuses to pay the weekly extortion to the henchmen of the shipyard owner, Samant (Madan Puri), who is a merciless crime lord. Vijay proceeds to thrash several of Samant's henchmen, and a disappointed Sumitra berates him due to this. Vijay sarcastically asks her whether she expects him "also" to escape like a coward, implying that he criticises his father's actions, causing a perturbed Sumitra to slap Vijay and half-heartedly defend Anand. However, this event influences one of Samant's rivals, Mulk Raj Daavar (Iftekhar), to hire Vijay to protect his smuggledgold bullion that has been thrice hijacked by Samant. Vijay sells the information to Samant to help him hijack the gold bullion, takes the money from Samant, then captures the gold bullion from his warehouse and hands it over to Daavar. An impressed Daavar rewards Vijay with a huge sum of money, allowing him to purchase a palatial home for his family.
Meanwhile, DCP Narang provides Ravi his first assignment to apprehend and arrest some of the hardcore criminals and smugglers in Mumbai, which also include Daavar, and Ravi's own brother, Vijay. Ravi is shocked for having never associated his brother with criminal activities, and must now decide between apprehending Vijay and quitting the police force. Later, Ravi shoots an impoverished boy, Chander, in the leg non-fatally in an attempt to arrest him for committing theft, only to find out that Chander had stolen only some bread for his family. After admitting Chander to a hospital under police custody, a remorseful Ravi visits his home, offering his family some food and confessing his action, but Chander's enraged 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, Chander'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 a penny 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. After hearing both sides from Chander's parents, Ravi, who was initially reluctant to act against his own brother, is finally motivated to agree to take his case from DCP Narang.
When Ravi investigates that Vijay has accquired wealth overnight by crime, he confronts Vijay and orders him to surrender himself to the police. However, Vijay refuses to do so, citing all the injustice caused to him and his family. Nevertheless, Ravi decides to leave the house purchased by him and go to live in his police quarters. Sumitra too is disgusted with Vijay and chooses to live with her honest younger son, even refusing to accept Vijay's gift of the high-rise apartment where she had once worked as a manual labourer. Ravi then completes his task assigned by DCP Narang and arrests many henchmen from Vijay and Daavar's gang, including Daavar himself, causing a feud to develop between Vijay and Ravi. Shouldering past the loss of his mother and brother and many of his associates, Vijay enters into an intimate relationship with Anita (Parveen Babi), a prostitute whom he meets at a bar. Around the same time, Anand's dead body is discovered inside a train and his funeral is performed by Vijay. Anita advises Vijay to erase the tattoo on his arm through plastic surgery, but Vijay states that doing so cannot erase the words on the tattoo from his heart and soul. Meanwhile, Sumitra falls terminally ill and Vijay is also unable to visit her at the hospital due to the police appointed by Ravi to arrest him. A furious Vijay enters the temple for the first time, and confronts the deity for punishing him at the cost of his faithful mother. As a result, Sumitra miraculously recovers from her terminal illness, much to Ravi and Veera's happiness.
Later, Vijay learns that Anita is pregnant with his illegitimate child and decides to abandon his life in the underworld, so that he can marry Anita, surrender himself to the police and seek forgiveness from Sumitra and Ravi, not wanting their unborn son to be scarred the way he was. He also calls Sumitra and asks her to arrive at the temple to give him blessings. Despite this, things take a drastic turn when Samant and his henchmen arrive and thrash Anita to death in revenge. After an emotional moment, Anita dies in the arms of Vijay, who retaliates by brutally murdering Samant and his henchmen, thus branding himself a criminal forever. Ravi learns about the deaths of Samant and his henchmen, and 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 at the crime scene, Ravi pleads with Vijay to stop running and surrender himself, and ends up shooting him in the arm and heart fatally. After getting hit by the gunshot, a gravely injured and dying Vijay uses a car to escape from Ravi and crashes it into the wall of the temple, where he reunites with Sumitra and pleads forgiveness. Vijay then dies in Sumitra's arms, leaving her extremely shattered, just as Ravi arrives at the temple and is completely distraught over what he did to Vijay. The film ends with a scene of DCP Narang and the police awarding Ravi, along with Veera and Sumitra for his successful pursuit of justice, though Ravi 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 plot was the film Gunga Jumna (1961), starring Dilip Kumar, which had a similar premise of two brothers on opposing sides of the law, with the elder 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.[15] 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.[21] 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.[15] 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[15] (representing Bismillah) and has its own subplot.[20] The 786 badge plays a powerful and symbolic role in several scenes,[15] saving Vijay at key moments[27] and signifying something ominous when he loses it.[15]
Salim–Javed initially showed the script to Bachchan, whom 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.[15]
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.[15] 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 involved. 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").[15] The film was shot mostly at night because Bachchan was shooting for Ramesh Sippy's Sholay at that time.[32]
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, from companies such as Eros Entertainment, Shemaroo Entertainment and Eagle Home Video, entered the market. These were released as non-restored, non-remastered editions, 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 and 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.[14] It is 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.[15] 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][21]Deewaar is also remembered for its iconic dialogues written by Salim–Javed. The most famous example 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.[19] Amitabh Bachchan described Salim–Javed's screenplay for Deewaar as "the perfect script"[15] 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),[20] 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).[20]
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).[12] 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 / Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 228–259
^Aḵẖtar, Jāvīd; Kabir, Nasreen Munni (2002). Talking Films: Conversations on Hindi Cinema with Javed Akhtar. Oxford University Press. p. 49. ISBN978-0-19-566462-1. Archived from the original on 22 February 2023. Retrieved 18 April 2019. JA: I write dialogue in Urdu, but the action and descriptions are in English. Then an assistant transcribes the Urdu dialogue into Devnagari because most people read Hindi. But I write in Urdu.
^Mazumdar, Ranjani (23 April 2007). Bombay Cinema. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN978-1-4529-1302-5. Archived from the original on 22 February 2023. Retrieved 22 June 2011.
^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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