Synopsis
Vijay
(Amitabh Bachchan) and Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) are two brothers
who were raised amidst much hardship by their strong-hearted
mother (Nirupa Roy) after their father abandons them. Vijay
is very different from his brother as he has a more hot-headed
temperament while Ravi is soft spoken and polite. Ravi struggles
to find a job even though he is a graduate. Ravi meets his
girlfriend's (Neetu Singh) father who is a police commissioner
and after meeting him he decides to join the police force
and leaves for training. On the other hand, Vijay works in
a shipping dock where he comes into contact with the underworld
and is driven into the world of crime. Vijay's primary reason
to go into the underworld is because he has seen his mother
suffer so much in life and wants to provide her with all the
luxuries of life. Then Ravi returns from his training having
become a full-fledged policeman. The two brothers are separated
by their duties as one protects the law while the other breaks
it. Finally Ravi shoots down Vijay who dies in his mother's
arms.
The film
Deewaar
is probably one of the most memorable Hindi films of all time.
The film is a perfect amalgamation of two older classics -
Ganga Jamuma
(1961) that looks at the good brother v/s the bad brother
and Mother India (1957)
in which the mother undergoes all sorts of hardships to bring
up her sons on her own. The film contains all the stock-in-trade
elements of the Indian melodrama - The good and bad brother,
the long suffering mother as the central moral force, divine
intervention and religious symbols but what sets it apart
is the taut script (perhaps the best ever Salim-Javed
Script), the powerful dialogues and above all a powerhouse
performance by Amitabh Bachchan
as the son driven to crime - perhaps his best ever! The film
is one of a series in which he plays the 'angry young man'-
the lone rebel, the man seeking personal vengeance and social
justice, operating outside and more efficiently than the law.
His character was said to have been based on the famous smuggler
Haji Mastan Mirza and it is to Bachchan's credit that he succeeds
in humanizing the gangster and has the audience rooting for
him rather than his law abiding younger brother.
The film also exploits popular religious
sentiment. Bachchan is an atheist but he
has blind faith in the miraculous power
of the number 786, the number of his badge
as a dockworker. (The number is as sacred
to Muslims as Om is to Hindus) As long as
he carries it on person, he remains invincible.
While fleeing from the police his badge
falls and slips out of reach and a bullet
fired by his brother hits him. However he
reaches his mother in the temple and collapses
in her arms symbolizing his return to innocence.
Deewaar
is a prime example of the importance of the mother syndrome
in Indian Cinema. The mother had grown from a minor character
in early Indian Cinema to occupy centre stage as epitomised
in Mother India.  The highlight of the film is an exchange between the two
estranged brothers who live separately. Bachchan tells Sashi
Kapoor that what has Kapoor got in life being an honest
cop - a job, a uniform a Government quarter and look at
him (Bachchan). He has amassed much wealth, property. He
has everything. What does Kapoor have? Kapoor retorts he
has their mother! Bachchan has no answer to this…
Till today the mother figure is an extremely crucial factor
to mainstream Indian Cinema. She is still deified and what
is most interesting is that she always has an obsessive
relationship with her son(s) but hardly ever with her daughter(s)!
Nirupa Roy lives her role as the long-suffering mother,
which established her as the leading screen mother of Hindi
Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s. The other characters mainly
work as foils to these two main ones and are competently
handled. Mention however must be made of Parveen
Babi who scores as Bachchan's girlfriend - the whore
with the Heart of gold.
The film has several impressive moments
and is layered with irony and symbolism.
When the mother and her two sons are forced
to live on the streets in the background
on the soundtrack we hear Sare Jahaan
Se Achcha! When Shashi Kapoor finds
out his father is dead he just stops Nirupa
Roy putting on her vermilion (sindoor) without
saying a word rather than a standard scene
where he would have to melodramatically
announce his father's death. The father
who abandoned the family is shown shuttling
inside moving trains all the time showing
he has no fixed destination in life and
when a train pulls up at Bombay at the end
of its journey he is found dead inside signifying
the end of his journey in life as well.
On the flip side there is no real scope
for music and though R.D. Burman
does come up with a couple of hummable numbers
they don't really add much to the film overall.
Also the techniques of the 70s with excessive
use of the zoom actually make the film look
dated. But the life of the film is its script
and Bachchan and that comes through powerfully
making Deewaar the film it is.
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