The Wall 1975

[Ursula Illiano]

Deewaarwas released worldwide on 24 January 1975 to critical acclaim from critics with praise for its story, script, music and cast performances (especially Bachchan, Kapoor and Roy) and became critically and commercially successful. The film became commercially successful and is considered a ground-breaking cinematic masterpiece, with India Times ranking Deewaar amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films as well as being 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 on Indian cinema, as well as wider Indian society, with the film's anti-establishment themes and Bachchan's criminal anti-hero vigilante character resonating with audiences, cementing 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, "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, and the value of film writers skyrocketed thanks to Salim-Javed, who were paid as highly as leading actors at the time.[19] Deewaar's influence also extends to world cinema, influencing films from Hong Kong[20] and British cinema.[12][21]

Anand Verma, a trade union leader working hard to better the lives of struggling labourers, lives in a modest home with his wife, Sumitra Verma, and their two young sons, Vijay Verma and Ravi Verma. Anand Verma is blackmailed by a corrupt businessman, Badri Prasad, who threatens to kill his family if Anand does not cease his protest activities. Forced into compliance, Anand is despised and nearly beaten to death for his betrayal by the angry labourers, who are unaware that he was blackmailed to do so. Unable to bear the humiliation, Anand escapes from the town and decides to spend his remaining life aimlessly travelling in trains, deserting his family for whom he had abandoned his principles and ideals. Meanwhile, the labourers also persecute Anand's family; some of them kidnap Vijay and tattoo his left arm with the Hindi words "मेर बप चर है" (English: "My father is a thief"). In desperation Sumitra brings Vijay and Ravi to Mumbai, and resorts to low-wage manual labour to raise her sons. Their home is on the footpath under a huge bridge that is home to millions of homeless urban poor who have been driven out in attempts at city development by the state.

Meanwhile, Ravi is provided with his first assignment by Veera's father to apprehend and arrest some of the hardcore criminals and smugglers in Mumbai, which include his brother Vijay. Ravi is shocked, for he had never associated his own brother with criminal activities and must now decide between apprehending Vijay and quitting the police force. Initially reluctant to act against his own brother, he is later moved when he non-fatally shoots in the leg a poor boy who had stolen a few loaves of bread, in an attempt to stop the boy from running. When a remorseful Ravi visits the boy's family at their home, offering them some rotis and confessing his action, the boy's angry 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, the boy's father forgives Ravi and justifies the shooting by stating that the stealing no matter of a "lakh" or of food 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, which finally motivates Ravi to agree to take the case from Veera's father. When Ravi discovers that Vijay has accquired wealth by crime, he decides to leave the palatial house and go to live in his police quarters along with Sumitra, who too is disgusted with Vijay and even refuses to accept his gift of the high-rise apartment where she had once worked as a manual labourer.

Ravi completes his assigned task by arresting many associates of Daavar's gang; even Daavar is arrested, causing a feud to develop between Vijay and Ravi. Vijay enters into an intimate relationship with a young woman named Anita, whom he meets at a bar. Anand's dead body is discovered inside a train, and his last rites are performed by Vijay. As Vijay, Ravi and Sumitra lament the death of Anand, Anita advises Vijay to erase the tattoo on his arm through plastic surgery, but Vijay refuses, stating that surgery would not erase his fate in the past. Anita then reveals to Vijay that she is pregnant with his child, but she would not force him to marry her and would raise the child by herself. However, Vijay, not wishing anyone to tattoo on the arm of his own child that his father is a thief, decides to abandon his life in the underworld so that he can marry Anita, confess his sins to the police and seek forgiveness from Veera, her father, Sumitra and Ravi.

However, Samant and his henchmen arrive and murder Anita in revenge. Anita dies in the arms of Vijay, who retaliates by brutally murdering the killers, thus branding himself forever a criminal. Sumitra, who had always sided with Ravi despite the fact that Vijay was her favourite, is tormented by Vijay's decisions and rejects him. Ravi, pleading with Vijay to stop running and surrender, ends up shooting him in the arm and heart fatally, before the dying Vijay uses a car to escape from Ravi and has it crashed into the wall of a temple, where he reunites with Sumitra and pleads forgiveness. Vijay then dies in Sumitra's arms, just as Ravi arrives at the temple and is completely distraught over his action towards Vijay. The film ends with Veera's father and the Maharashtra police presenting an award to Ravi along with Veera and Sumitra for his successful pursuit of justice, though Ravi is still filled with remorse for killing Vijay.

Amitabh Bachchan's character, Vijay, was loosely inspired by the real-life Mumbai underworld gangster Haji Mastan.[12][13] Vijay's story arc in the film parallels that of Mastan's life, such as the rise from a humble dockyard porter to a powerful smuggler,[13][26] and Mastan's rivalry with smuggler Sukkur Narayan Bakhia is similar to Vijay's rivalry with Samant (Madan Puri).[13]

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 Muslim co-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, who 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]

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 in the film. Shashi Kapoor was subsequently cast as Ravi, and Nirupa Roy as Sumitra Devi.[30]

The film contains a fight scene[33] that involves Bachchan performing martial arts inspired by Hong Kong martial arts cinema, which Deewaar was one of the first to do in Indian cinema.[34][35] Rather than following the Hollywood model, it follows the Hong Kong model, with an emphasis on acrobatics and stunts. The style of fighting seen in Deewaar combined kung fu (as it was perceived by Indians) with Indian martial arts (particularly Indian wrestling).[36]

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]

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 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]

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