ASHOK’s FIVE brings to you the 1975 Amitabh Bacchan starrer #Deewaar. This classic film directed by Yash Chopra and written by Salim-Javed is known for building AB as the angry young man and catapulting him to super stardom. The story is based on the life of two brothers, one who treads the right path and the other sets out to become self-made but on the back of crime. Deewaar reflected the sentiment in socialist India where the lack of opportunity made the young Indian angry at his circumstances and sough an outlet for his frustration. The film is on my all time, any season favorites list on the back of intense acting and superlative script writing.
1. Watch Deewaar for Amitabh Bachchan. The dark brooding look coupled with his distinctive baritone and a languid, sullen body language catapulted him into super stardom with the tag of the ‘angry young man’. His eyes are cold, defiant, emotionless, sad but never contrite and yet strangely moist as he plays the man who has been wronged but who now wants to craft his own destiny and will not tolerate sympathy. His love interest Anita (played with aplomb by Parveen Babi) is there by his side but not once does she talk about his work, the risks he takes or call into question morality.
Vijay Verma (Bachchan’s character) rarely ever loses his cool and the only occasion where you see him losing it completely is when he takes on the goon Jaichand for suggesting that they bump off his brother. That burst of emotion is the only glimpse of overt affection that you see in the whole film.
Bachchan’s transformation from the unshaven dock coolie in the blue shirt, amulet, beedi and hauling rope to first full sleeve shirts with extravagant collars and finally to the clean shaven, suave, jacket and tie look with a deliberate air around him is the stuff that fans came in to watch again and again. The only scene where he wears a white is when he arrives to light his father’s pyre.
His soliloquy pieces are pure gold. Sample the part where he justifies himself saying “Pehle unka sign le ke aao…” or the brilliant temple scene where he goes to beg for his mother’s life. This is the only scene in the film where he sheds tears. The last scene has him running away from the police with that classic style where the left arm and elbow lead the really long steps...
2. Watch Deewar for some surprise packages. Ursula Vaz croons “I’m falling in love with a stranger” a proper English soundtrack in a mainstream Bollywood movie! This is one rare film that has AB smoking in many scenes as he plays a character inspired by the Bombay docks gangster Haji Mastan. It is also a film where you seem him shirtless in an era when Salman was still a toddler. The only other film where he takes off his shirt is Shakti where he is paired opposite Smita Patil in that song scene “Jaane Kaise Kab Kahan…” For an intense heavy-duty film, the few songs stand out and in particular look out for “Keh doon tumhe..” before DJ Aqueel repurposed it into the standard disc remix. And for that ‘billa number 786’ which became such a rage in the seventies. That billa actually says “Bombay docks Moga Line 786”
Iftekar is brilliant as Daawar Seth and Nirupa Roy plays AB’s mother. Her lines are again memorable “Aurat apni farz nibha chuki; ab maa apne bete ki intezaar karne jaa rahi hai” she says as she heads to the temple to receive her dying son. Or then that line where she tells Vijay “Tu abhi itna amir nahi hua ke apni maa ko kharid sake” Another wonderful character is the heavy hamming Madan Puri who plays Samant “Khel tumne shuru kiya hai; khatam main karoonga”
3. Deewaar boasted fantastic writing that elevated the film and gave us classic dialogues that are still part of popular vocabulary. Sample these:
“Tum log mujhe doondh rahe ho, aur main tumhara yahan intezaaar kar raha hoon” delivered in AB’s classic baritone, seated in that laconic style that is his trademark! Or better still as he tells Parveen Babi “Tumhari jaisi ladkiyan apni naam kapde jaise badalti hain”. In that iconic fight scene in the godown he says “Peter yeh lo chaabi apni jeb mein rakh lo. Main yeh chaabi tumhari jeb se loonga aur yeh taala kholunga”
The one that stands out though is one that reflects the pride and sense of self-worth of the younger generation “Daawar sahib, main aaj bhi pheke hue paise nahi uthatha”
4. Watch it for that iconic scene where the brothers confront each other and Shashi playing Inspector Ravi Verma silences AB with “Mere paas maa hai”. Yash Chopra builds the brothers as two different individuals fond of each other, but the relationship is tenuous and both Vijay and Ravi almost avoid any reference to the elephant on the table in the initial parts.
The scene immediately after that is the one where Ravi holds his mother’s hand by the wrist preventing her from wearing her sindoor and signifying that she is now a widow. How powerful is that!
Shashi Kapoor plays the younger brother Ravi Verma endearingly. The scene where he bluffs the goons in the godown and manages to convince them to hand over their pistols is pure delight. Or when his mother confides that she always loved Vijay more than him, that look of bewilderment is pure genius.
5. Yash Chopra and the Salim-Javed write Deewar almost as a mirror the societal upheavals of the seventies in India. Besides capturing the angst of the youth in the character of Vijay Verma, the film has plenty of scenes that capture the fabric of society with almost moral lessons for us. Ravi Verma shoots a little boy accused for stealing soon after he takes charge as Inspector. It turns out that he was only after a loaf of bread and the lesson on principle over money is doled out to him by the evergreen A K Hangal in his cameo as a municipal school teacher.
The scene where the brothers confront each other is preceded by the background singing of ‘Sare Jahan se accha’ almost a paean to the nationalistic fervor. That scene in the middle of the night with the quintessential kaali-peelis lined up on the road is the perfect set-up for the ‘Mere pass maa hai’ dialogue!
Or sample the Arjun-Krishna story from the Gita that Meera (Neetu Singh) recounts to Ravi as he sets out to arrest his own elder brother!
Amidst the high emotion and drama of good versus bad, the director also points to the story of hope for the future when Anita announces that she is pregnant, and the couple pray that the baby deserves a better life than what was dished out to them.
ASHOK’s FIVE EXTRA brings to you some special trivia on Deewar for die hard AB fans. The special look that AB donned for Deewar had him tying a knot on his blue shirt at the navel and this became a street side fashion statement. This was no special styling; the tailor has in fact provided him with a shirt that was simply too long and Bachchan took recourse to the knot to solve the problem! Yash Chopra based the film on a 1961 Dilip Kumar film called Ganga Jamuna with a similar story-line. The first choice for the role of Vijay Verma was actually Rajesh Khanna; Naveen Nischol was also considered. Salim Javed wanted Shatrugan Sinha to be cast along with AB. The preferences for the mother’s role were Vyjantimala and Waheeda Rehman. The latter was playing Bachchan’s love interest in Kabhie Kabhie and had to be dropped! On a different note, most of the scenes in Deewaar are shot in the night; this is because AB was shooting for Sholay at the same time and shuttling between cities. Deewaar won six Film Fare awards but Sanjeev Kumar beat AB to the best actor award with his powerful performance in Aandhi!
Bachchan is simply magic in his role as Vijay Verma. He captures the essence of the self-made man who is the matter-of-fact rags to riches hero in his own right. As he tells Anita “Mera baap toh bees saal pehle mar gaya tha; aaj toh sirf unki chita jalaya gaya hai”. There is no place for emotions in his book; he is here to move mountains and figure his own path ahead!
