Deewar (1975)

I’ll say it today, in public, on the internet where the records will be kept.

Deewar is better then Sholay.

I feel as if this is an age old argument among Hindi cinema fans, particular Mr. Bachchan’s followings. But this is the day of the blog that’s dedicated to Deewar, and I thought I’d share my feelings, and the oddly gripping internal struggle to decide whether I like Sholay or Deewar better. I have decided that I will set this in stone, that I believe the latter movie is better than the former. They are both masterpieces, to be sure. Both changed Hindi cinema dramatically.  

However, personally, Deewar is the movie that always makes me think. And I like movies that never fail to make me think, make me put things into perspective.

Deewar was released in 1975, directed by Yash Chopra, written by Javed Akhtar and stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor as brothers Vijay and Ravi, and Neerupa Roy as their mother. The story revolves around the two brothers, and the wall (deewar) that is built between them when Vijay, the eldest brother, becomes a high ranking Bombay mob boss, and Ravi becomes a police inspector. 

The movie is the way they move around the wall, the way their lives have drifted apart, and how there is a “right” and “wrong” that separates them. But what’s interesting about this movie is that there is no clarity between rights and wrong, there are a lot of shades of gray that reflect India in the 1970’s, perhaps even today’s India, with corruption running rampant throughout the country, broadening the gap between rich and poor. The movie is a wonderful social commentary on the times, and the lessons it teaches are endless.

The ideal lesson one must learn from this lesson is that no matter what, justice and what is right and lawful, will always prevail. Ravi’s character, the upstanding citizen, the police officer who goes after his own brother to stop his illegal activities, the pious, righteous life leading people like Ravi will always come out on top in the end. And the people like Vijay’s character, who step on as many toes as they need to, to obtain wealth, will always lose because they’re on the wrong side of the wall.

However, for me, because of my own history, my own background, I always find myself siding with Vijay’s character in this movie, and find myself scolding Neerupa Roy’s character for siding with her youngest son as well. In the beginning of the movie, we see a young Vijay, who gets harassed and has the words “my father is a theif” tattooed on his arm, works day and night alongside his mother to send his youngest brother to school. Vijay grows up, working as a dockhand while Ravi goes around town looking for a job. When he finally finds a job at default, because the guy it was promised to shows up late, Ravi gives his job away to the guy who shows up late due to a late bus. While Vijay struggles on the docks, and one day finally opportunity presents itself, and Vijay becomes a smuggler and moves his family from the slums to a plush bungalow where the family lacks nothing.

I came to this country as a child of 8 years old, with two older sisters who were 20 and 18. My oldest sister gave up school, gave up her own dreams and worked day and night (no exaggeration) to provide for the family, to help my dad build our family a home, a livelihood in this foreign country. My own situation isn’t and never was as drastic as the story of Ravi and Vijay, but I always feel that had I been in Ravi’s shoes, I would help my brother. I would do whatever was in my power, because I would remember that he was shining shoes on the streets to send me to school, to put food on the table.

For me, loyalty to family is more important then loyalty to law or society. And I think in that, I miss the point of the movie.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t love to watch it…over and over and over again.

Mr. Bachchan, the focus of this entire project, is at his finest in this movie. He delivers the gangster Vijay with such ease and grace yet his eyes manage to hold on to the look of a lost and lonely child who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. There are two dialogues in this movie that have become famous, but my favorite is the last in the movie, in the temple where he is begging his god for his mother’s life. Every time I see that seen, or hear that portion, I get chills. He proves his worth, his abilities as an actor in this movie to deliver the character, and make him stick.

Vijay is an iconic figure in Hindi cinema, from the badge number 786 to the blue shirt he wears.

Now though, my favorite thing to do with my favorite movies is to find fun stories or facts about them. And I lucked out because Mr. Bachchan recently wrote on his blog about shooting Deewar.

So here are a few little fun facts about Deewar:

1.      The blue shirt Vijay wears as a dock worker has become iconic in the way he knots it in the front. In an interview that I’ll post below, Mr. Bachchan recalls that the shirt had simply been too long on him and they had knotted the front to disguise this fact.

2.      The character of Vijay Varma is loosely based on Bombay mob boss and smuggler Haji Mastan.

3.      Amitabh Bachchan shot Sholay and Deewar simultaneously. As he recalled recently, he would shoot for Sholay in Bangalore during the day then fly back to Bombay to shoot for Deewar.

This movie is cinematic legend. I think everyone should watch it just to experience it.