“Deewaar” Movie Review

 

“Deewaar”

 

Movie Review

 

 

Indian action-crime movie Deewaar was released in 1975 and was written and directed by Salim-Javed. Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Neetu Singh, Nirupa Roy, and Parveen Babi are among the cast members. The movie is about two poor brothers who battle to survive in Bombay's slums and ultimately end up on opposing sides of the law when their family is betrayed by their father's misguided ideals. The "wall" that has formed between the two brothers after being torn apart by fate and circumstances during a period of social unrest is known as Deewaar.

 

The powerful leadership of trade unionist Anand Verma, who works tirelessly to improve the lives of laborers in need, is first shown in the opening scene of the movie. Together with his wife Sumitra Devi and their two young boys Vijay and Ravi, he resides in a modest house. Anand is blackmailed by a dishonest businessman who threatens to kill his family if he does not stop his protest actions, though, and things quickly get worse. Anand is beaten after being coerced into complying by the exact same workers who mock him for betraying them and who are ignorant that he was forced into doing so. The irate employees target his family as well. Anand leaves town out of shame, leaving Sumitra to care for their sons alone herself in abject poverty. Many of the irate employees abduct Vijay and tattoo the Hindi phrase "mera bap chor hai," which translates to "my father is a thief," on his arm. Sumitra sends her children to Mumbai out of a lack of options and works a day working to provide for her sons.

 

Vijay, who has been blamed for his father's alleged wrongdoings, grows up with a keen understanding of his father's failure as the boys mature into young men. Vijay begins as a boot polisher and then transitions into a dockyard worker as he fights for his rights. After Vijay kills a number of goons working for the brutal criminal boss Samant, Mulk Raj Daavar, one of Samant's competitors, convinces Vijay to join his inner circle. Vijay is given money by Daavar as payment for successfully stealing some of Samant's possessions, which enables him to purchase a lavish home for his family. Vijay keeps working on his tasks for Daavar while simultaneously forgoing his own education to allow Ravi to continue his studies.

 

Ravi begins dating Veera Narang, the child of Police Commissioner DCP Narang, as soon as he completes his schooling. Ravi submits an application for a job with the police and is sent for training at the Commissioner's advice. He joins the police force and is given the rank of Sub-Inspector a few months later. To his dismay, Ravi's first task upon returning home is to locate and detain some of Bombay's most notorious criminals and smugglers, among them his brother Vijay. Ravi had never before connected his brother with illegal activity. At this point, Ravi must choose between arresting Vijay and leaving the police. After Ravi accidentally shoots a youngster who had stolen two rotis while trying to catch his brother, he becomes motivated to arrest his brother. The boy's mother chastises Ravi while the boy's father sends her back to the room when a repentant Ravi visits the boy's family, offering them some food and admitting what he has done. As Ravi's father pardons him and explains that stealing a "lakh" or some food is the same thing, Ravi is finally persuaded to pursue the case.

 

As a result of Ravi's decision to leave and Sumitra's dissatisfaction over Vijay's acquisition of fortune through crime, a disagreement between Vijay and Ravi arises. Anand is discovered dead inside a train at the same time, and Vijay cremates his body. Then, Ravi seizes the chance to finish his mission of eliminating and detaining numerous colleagues from both Samant and Daavar's gangs; Daavar himself ultimately becomes a victim of Ravi's arrest. Furious by the loss of his loved ones and many of his friends, Vijay starts seeing a lady he meets at a bar named Anita. When Anita becomes pregnant with Vijay's kid, Vijay chooses to leave the underworld so that he can wed Anita, confess his mistakes, and ask Sumitra and Ravi for their forgiveness. But, when Samant and his remaining thugs show up and murder Anita, Vijay becomes furious and kills Samant and his other men in retaliation, earning himself the reputation of a lifelong criminal.

 

After learning what transpired after Samant and his group are killed, Ravi confronts Vijay in a final confrontation, appealing with him to stop evading capture and turn himself in. Vijay declines, and as he flees to a temple to meet up with Sumitra and beg for forgiveness, he is fatally shot in the arm by Ravi. Then Vijay passes away in Sumitra's arms, completely shattering her. At about the same time, Ravi makes his way to the temple, where he is visibly upset at what he has done to Vijay. But Ravi is still tormented by guilt for killing Vijay, the movie closes with the police giving a celebration for Ravi for his successful actions in seeking justice and apprehending offenders.

 

After its release, Deewaar was a critical and financial success. The narrative, plot, and music of the movie received appreciation, as did the actions of the entire cast, especially Bachchan, Kapoor, and Roy. It is frequently regarded as a revolutionary cinematic masterpiece. Deewaar is one of the top 25 Bollywood movies that you absolutely must see, and it's also one of the three Hindi-language movies that made the list of 1001 Films You Must Watch Before You Die. With its anti-establishment themes and Bachchan's criminal anti-hero vigilante persona connecting with moviegoers, the movie had a tremendous impact on Indian cinema as well as larger Indian society. This helped to solidify Bachchan's well-known reputation as the "angry young man" of Bollywood. Forbes' list of the "25 Greatest Acting Performances in Indian Film" featured Bachchan's performance in the movie. The movie contributed to the success of the writing team Salim-Javed, who went on to pen a number of other successful blockbuster movies and were paid on par with A-list actors at the time. In addition to other international cinema, Deewaar has impacted movies from Hong Kong, Britain, and other countries.

 

Deewaar won the Filmfare Best Motion Picture Award in 1976. It also won six additional Filmfare Awards for Best Screenplay, Best Dialogue, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Story, and Best Supporting Actor for Shashi Kapoor. Amitabh Bachchan and Nirupa Roy also received two additional nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.

 

Dilip Kumar's 1961 film Gunga Jumna, which featured two brothers on opposing sides of the law with the older criminal brother as the main character, served as the primary source of inspiration for the plot of the movie. Shashi Kapoor resembles Yudhisthira from the Mahabharata, while Amitabh Bachchan's character is partially based on Karna from the Mahabharata. Hence, Deewaar is regarded as Gunga Jumna's spiritual heir. Deewaar, which the authors Salim-Javed called as a "more urban, much more current" take on their themes because it was reinterpreted in a contemporary urban milieu, was mostly inspired by the 1957 films Gunga Jumna and Mother India by Mehboob Khan, which both took place in rural settings.

 

The fictional mobster Vijay played by Amitabh Bachchan was partially based on the real-life gangster Haji Mastan from the underworld of Bombay. In the movie, Vijay's journey from a lowly dockyard worker to a successful smuggler is similar to Mastan's, and Mastan's rivalry with Sukkur Narayan Bakhia is comparable to Vijay's rivalry with Samant, played by Madan Puri.

 

The screenplay by writing team Salim-Javed had lively dialogue and several significant ideas. For instance, the meeting of the two brothers as adults occurs under a bridge, signifying the building of a bridge between the brothers. The film's depiction of criminals in the Dharavi slums of Bombay was an indictment of sociopolitical injustice and inequality in Bombay. In order to present a causal explanation for the course of events and Vijay's social alienation, the two brothers' characters are sociologically contextualized to represent an urban conflict and drama. The narrative explains every action and decision Vijay makes and is based on his memories and experiences.

 

The plot largely exudes a secular environment while containing subtly religious themes. The criminal brother Vijay is generally not religious and "upset with God," but he wears a badge number 786, which the Muslim Rahim Chacha points out to be a number of religious significance in Islam representing Bismillah and has its own subplot. The mother Sumitra Devi and police brother Ravi are both devout Hindus. In various scenes, the 786 badge has a significant and symbolic significance, protecting Vijay at crucial times and denoting something sinister when he loses it.

 

Deewaar, a pivotal figure in the development of the heroic carnage crime genre of 1980s Hong Kong action cinema, had an impact on Hong Kong cinema, and subsequently Hollywood cinema. The 2008 release of Danny Boyle's Academy Award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, which he credited Deewaar as having influenced, was hailed as "absolutely crucial to Indian cinema" by the British filmmaker. Simon Beaufoy "researched Salim-sort Javed's of cinema minutely," the movie's co-director Loveleen Tandan said. Observing that certain scenes in Slumdog Millionaire "are like Deewaar, the story of two brothers, of whom one is entirely after money while the younger one is honest and not interested in money," actor Anil Kapoor said that these scenes "are like Deewaar." Deewaar and Slumdog Millionaire, two films made in Amitabh Bachchan's honor, share the same plot. The movie was mentioned by composer A. R. Rahman in his victory speech for an Oscar.

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