Deewaar (1975 film)

Deewaar
Directed by	Yash Chopra
Produced by	Gulshan Rai
Written by	Salim-Javed
Starring	Shashi Kapoor Amitabh Bachchan Neetu Singh Nirupa Roy Parveen Babi
Music by	Rahul Dev Burman
Cinematography	Kay Gee
Editing by	T.R. Mangeshkar Pran Mehra
Studio	Mumbai
Distributed by	Trimurti Films Pvt. Ltd.
Release date(s)	1 January 1975 [1]
Running time	176 mins
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Deewaar, or Deewar (Hindi: दीवार, Urdu: دیوار, English: The Wall), is a 1975 Indian drama directed by Yash Chopra, written by Salim-Javed, and starring Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor. Reflective of "the tumultuous politics of the early 70s" in India, Deewar tells the story of two impoverished brothers who, after their family is betrayed by the misplaced idealism of their father, struggle to survive on the streets of Mumbai.^[2]

Deewaar was a ground-breaking work. It was one of a few films which established Bachchan as the "angry young man" of Bollywood cinema^[3][4] and Parveen Babi as the "new Bollywood woman" ^[5] whose character Anita is "a liberated working girl, smoking, drinking and sleeping with her lover, defying every Hindi film heroine rule."^[6][7] This movie cemented the success of the writing duo Salim-Javed, who went on to write many more blockbuster films, and made them one of the most memorable writers in Hindi cinema. It is said that after the success of this film, the value of film writers skyrocketed, thanks to Salim-Javed, and they soon were being paid as high as some of the actors at the time.^{[8][dead link]}

Deewaar received the Filmfare Best Movie Award of 1975 in addition to six other Filmfare Awards and was a "superhit" at the box office, ranking in at number 4.^[9] Indiatimes ranks Deewaar amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.^[10]

Plot

Deewaar tells the story of two impoverished brothers who grow up to follow different career paths: Vijay is a smuggler and Ravi a policeman who eventually must hunt down Vijay. Vijay's character is said to be loosely based on real life smuggler Haji Mastan.^{[by whom?]}

The film opens with the strong leadership of trade unionist, Anand Verma (Satyen Kappu), who works hard to enhance the lives of struggling laborers. He lives in a modest home with his wife, Sumitra Devi (Nirupa Roy), and their two young sons, Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) and Ravi Verma (Shashi Kapoor). Anand, however, is blackmailed by a corrupt businessman who threatens to kill his family if Anand does not cease his activities. Forced into compliance, Anand is thus attacked by the very same laborers who once supported him. His family is also persecuted by the angry workers who brand young Vijay's arm with the words: "My Father Is A Thief." Anand then runs away forcing his wife and two children into destitute poverty. Not knowing what else to do, Sumitra Devi brings her children to Mumbai and struggles as a day laborer to care for her now homeless boys.

Vijay, the elder brother, grows up with an acute awareness of his father's failure and is victimized for his father's supposed misdeeds. In the process of fighting for his rights Vijay, who starts out as a boot polisher and becomes a dockyard worker in his youth, becomes a smuggler and a leading figure of the underworld. He also sacrifices his own education so his brother Ravi can study. Ravi is an excellent student and grows up to become an upright police officer. He is also dating Veera (Neetu Singh), the daughter of a senior police officer. Vijay, on the other hand, becomes involved with Anita (Parveen Babi), a "loose" woman whom he meets at a bar. When Anita becomes pregnant, Vijay decides to abandon his life in the underworld, marry her, and confess his sins. He also hopes to seek forgiveness from his mother and brother. However, when Anita is brutally attacked by rival members of the underworld, Vijay loses all sense of rational behavior, leading him to be branded a criminal forever. Their mother, who had sided with Ravi despite the fact that Vijay was her favorite, is tormented by Vijay's decisions and rejects him. When the two brothers meet for a final clash, however, it is Vijay who dies in her arms seeking forgiveness and Ravi who is awarded for pursuing justice.

Cast

Lead actors Shashi Kapoor, Nirupa Roy, and Amitabh Bachchan as seen in the film

• Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay Verma (the elder brother)
• Shashi Kapoor as Ravi Verma (the younger brother)
• Nirupa Roy as Sumitra Devi, Vijay & Ravi's Mother
• Neetu Singh as Leena Narang
• Satyendra Kapoor as Anand Verma, Vijay & Ravi's Father
• Parveen Babi as Anita
• Manmohan Krishna as DCP Narang
• Madan Puri as Samant
• Iftekhar as Mulk Raj Dhabaria
• Sudhir as Jaichand
• Jagdish Raj as Jaggi
• Raj Kishore as Darpan
• Yunus Parvez as Rahim Chacha, Head porter
• Mohan Sherry as Peter's Henchman
• Alankar Joshi as Young Vijay Verma
• Raju Shrestha as Young Ravi Verma
• Rajan Verma as Lachhu
• A. K. Hangal as Chander's Father
• Dulari as Chander's Mother
• D. K. Sapru as Mr. Agarwal
• Kamal Kapoor as Anand Verma's Employer

Crew

• Director: Yash Chopra
• Story: Salim-Javed
• Screenplay: Salim-Javed
• Dialogue: Salim-Javed
• Producer: Gulshan Rai
• Cinematographer: Kay Gee
• Editor: T. R. Mangeshkar, Pran Mehra
• Art Director: Desh Mukherjee
• Stunts: M. B. Shetty, Kodi S. Irani
• Music Director: Rahul Dev Burman
• Lyricist: Sahir Ludhianvi
• Playback Singers: Asha Bhosle, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Bhupendra Singh, Ursula Vaz, Usha Mangeshkar

Soundtrack

The Soundtrack of the movie was composed by Rahul Dev Burman, and the lyrics were penned by Sahir Ludhianvi. The soundtrack did well, and the track "Kehdoon Tumhe" was a chartbuster.

Song	Singer(s)
"Kehdoon Tumhe"	Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle
"Maine tujhe manga"	Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle
"Koi mar jaye"	Asha Bhosle and Usha Mangeshkar
"Deewarun ka jungle"	Manna Dey
"Idhar ka mal udhar"	Bhupinder Singh
"I am falling in love with a stranger"	Ursula Vaz

Awards and nominations

"Deewaar" is noted for having "swept the 1976 Filmfare Awards except for the Lead Actor, for which Amitabh Bachchan was nominated." ^[11]

Filmfare Awards

• Won:Best Film (Gulshan Rai)
• Won:Best Director (Yash Chopra)
• Won:Best Supporting Actor (Shashi Kapoor)
• Won:Best Story (Salim-Javed)
• Won:Best Dialogue (Salim-Javed)
• Won:Best Screenplay (Salim-Javed)
• Won:Best Sound (M. A. Shaikh)
• Nomination: Best Actor (Amitabh Bachchan)
• Nomination: Best Supporting Actress (Nirupa Roy) ^[12]

Trivia

The role of Vijay was initially offered to Rajesh Khanna by Yash Chopra but Salim Javed insisted that Amitabh would suit the character after watching a fighting sequence in the film Bombay to Goa. Similarly Nirupa Roy's character was offered to Vyjayanthimala but she turned down the role and Shashi Kapoor's role was to be played by Navin Nischol.

Influence on other films

The film was later remade in Telugu as Magaadu (1976) starring NTR with Ramakrishna, and Tamil as Thee (1981) starring Rajnikanth, Suman, Manorama and Sripriya. Naam was also influenced by Deewar and was written by one of Deewar's cowriters. British director Danny Boyle, who described Deewaar as being “absolutely key to Indian cinema”, cited the film as an influence on his Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008).^[13] 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."^[14]

Further reading

• Dwyer, Rachel. "Amitabh Bachchan: the Angry Young Man." British Academy of Film and Television Arts, 16 November 2007.
• Lal, Vinay. "Deewaar (The Wall)." Revised excerpt from The Secret Politics of Our Desires: Innocence, Culpability, and Indian Popular Cinema, ed. Ashis 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.
• Virdi, Jyotika. "Deewaar: the fiction of film and the fact of politics." Jump Cut, No. 38, June 1993:26-32.

See also

• Deewaar (2004 film) - an unrelated work also starring Bachchan

Notes

1. ^ "Official website". Yashrajfilms.com. 1975-01-01. http://www.yashrajfilms.com/Movies/MovieIndividual.aspx?MovieID=88073824-563a-4456-b434-64a2186c64f4. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
2. ^ "Deewar: the fiction of film and the fact of politics". Ejumpcut.org. http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC38folder/Deewar.html. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
3. ^ "Film legend promotes Bollywood". BBC News. 2002-04-23. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1945451.stm. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
4. ^ "Bombay Cinema". Books.google.com. 2007-04-23. http://books.google.com/books?id=xenNBrRKOGoC&pg=PA11&dq=%22Deewar%22+1975#PPA11,M1. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
5. ^ Amitabh Bachchan and Parveen Babi in Deewar (2005-01-23). "As in life, so in death: lonely and lovelorn". Telegraphindia.com. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050123/asp/nation/story_4287764.asp. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
6. ^ "'We'll never know her full story'". Inhome.rediff.com. 2005-01-24. http://inhome.rediff.com/movies/2005/jan/24pb2.htm. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
7. ^ "'Cool' Babi broke Deewar of stereotypes". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2005-01-22. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/998600.cms. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
8. ^ [1]
9. ^ "BoxOffice India.com". BoxOffice India.com. http://www.boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=181&catName=MTk3NQ==. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
10. ^ "25 Must See Bollywood Movies - Special Features-Indiatimes - Movies". Movies.indiatimes.com. http://movies.indiatimes.com/Special_Features/25_Must_See_Bollywood_Movies/articleshow/msid-1250837,curpg-9.cms. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
11. ^ "When Kishore sang non-stop for Filmfare". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2009-02-28. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bollywood/When_Kishore_sang_non-stop_for_Filmfare/articleshow/4200560.cms. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
12. ^ "1st Filmfare Awards 1953". Deep750.googlepages.com. http://deep750.googlepages.com/FilmfareAwards.pdf. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
13. ^ Amitava Kumar (23 December 2008). "Slumdog Millionaire's Bollywood Ancestors". Vanity Fair. http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2008/12/slumdog-millionaires-bollywood-ancestors.html. Retrieved 2008-01-04. 
14. ^ Runna Ashish Bhutda, Ashwini Deshmukh, Kunal M Shah, Vickey Lalwani, Parag Maniar, Subhash K Jha (13 January 2009). "The Slumdog Millionaire File". Mumbai Mirror. http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=11&contentid=200901132009011303014836695d00b9e. Retrieved 2009-01-30. 

External links

• Official website
• Deewaar at Bollywood Hungama
• Deewaar at the Internet Movie Database
• Iowa review