DEEWAAR
1975
/ produced by Gulshan Rai / directed by Yash Chopra / starring
Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Nirupa Roy, Parveen Babi &
Neetu Singh / screenplay & dialogue by Salim-Javed / music
by R.D. Burman / lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi
Younger
audiences (and especially newcomers) introduced to Hindi cinema
by the stars of the 1990s must often secretly wonder why Amitabh
Bachchan is such a big deal. He has never had the bulging biceps
and ripped body of a Hrithik Roshan. Even in his early films,
he couldn't dance nearly as well as Shahrukh. Few of his movies
offered elaborate song and dance numbers like those favored
today. Sure, he might have turned in some first-rate performances
— most recently, in films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham
and Baghban — but nothing about him seems to *quite* justify
his status as superstar-of-the-millennium. Right? If you muse
upon these questions but are afraid to address them to your
esteemed elders (Bachchan groupies all), then I have the answer
for you:
Go
rent Deewaar.
Every
once in several decades comes a movie that breaks all the norms
and still manages to become not only a runaway success but also
an established classic. Deewaar is one such movie. Thirty years
after its release, Deewaar remains one of the most famous movies
Bollywood has ever produced. Those who love Hindi cinema for
its extravagant song and dance routines, its masala mix of romance,
comedy, action and melodrama, and its over-the-top emoting may
be surprised to learn that this 1975 explosion-of-a-movie is
conspicuously devoid of such characteristic elements. Yet Deewaar
is certainly a mainstream Bollywood film. It just happens to
be a phenomenal one.
Deewaar begins with a terrible choice: in
order to save his family's lives, Anand Verma (Satyen Kappu),
the union leader of the local mine workers, betrays his constituency,
surrendering to the mine-owners’ extortionate demands.
In return, he is humiliated and ostracized by his community.
Unable to bear the shame, Anand absconds, leaving his wife,
Sumitra Devi (Nirupa Roy), and his two sons, Vijay (Master Alankar,
Amitabh Bachchan) and Ravi (Master Raju, Shashi Kapoor), to
fend for themselves.
Ravi,
the youngest child, largely escapes the backlash, sheltered
from the community by his mother and brother. Vijay, on the
other hand, bears the brunt of the trauma; he becomes the target
of brutal public humiliation. The consequences of Vijay and
Ravi's very different experiences only intensify as the brothers
grow up. In a desperate bid to give his mother the material
comforts he thinks are her due, Vijay takes to a life of crime.
In contrast, Ravi, disgusted by repeated rejections in a job
market powered by nepotism, decides to enroll in the police
force. Inevitably, the siblings' differing ideologies lead to
an epic moral clash that creates a "deewaar," or wall,
between them. This wall becomes insurmountable when Vijay's
mother refuses to accept his ill-gotten riches, and forsakes
him to live with Ravi. Ultimately, Vijay's misery compels him
to seek redemption, but his attempt to obliterate the wall dividing
his family will exact an unthinkable price.
Deewaar
is, in one word, taut. From start to end, the movie is unrelentingly
tense, tight, somber and serious. The movie has virtually no
comic relief, setting it apart from almost all other Bollywood
movies, including the much-vaunted Sholay, which resorted to
several comic sequences. Deewaar countenances no such interruptions,
but the seriousness of the film works for two vital reasons:
the absolutely amazing, scorching and explosive under-acting
by Amitabh Bachchan; and the screenplay and dialogues by Salim-Javed.
To
say that Amitabh has acted really well in Deewaar is like saying
Niagara Falls is a really big waterfall: it misses the enormity
of the fact by several million gallons. To lovers of true cinematic
acting (and yes, there are some such fans even in Bollywood),
Deewaar offers a true, unadulterated, powerhouse performance
unparalleled in Hindi cinema. There is no living (or dead, for
that matter) actor who could have performed some of Deewaar's
most muted and yet powerfully moving scenes -- scenes in which
Vijay’s silent anguish abruptly transmutes to violent eruptions,
literally burning up the screen with intensity, anger, brutality,
vulnerability and gritty resolve. To the small but fiercely
loyal group of Amitabh fans, Deewaar is and will always be his
best performance. To some of us, it defines the gold standard
in Hindi film acting. It is Amitabh and only Amitabh who turned
this movie from a typical over-the-top melodrama with great
dialogues but no good songs into a gripping three-hour experience
that leaves the audience mesmerized (and in an overwhelming
majority of cases, crying uncontrollably as the end credits
roll).
Amitabh,
with his characteristic humility, once said in a BBC interview
that the script and screenplay for Deewaar was so good that
the movie would have been a runaway hit no matter who had played
Vijay. Well, Mr. Bachchan, as much as we love your humility,
we beg (nay, insist!) to differ. To this fan, as to a million
others, Amitabh and Deewaar are inextricably linked. One cannot
think of one without thinking of the other.
As
for Salim-Javed...apart from developing what is arguably the
tightest script ever written for Hindi film, the pair should
have gotten an award for the sheer number of quotable lines
in Deewaar. Even more so than Sholay, the dialogues from Deewaar
constitute a database of classic one-liners (in some cases,
two- to three- liners). Consider:
• “Main aaj bhi pheke hue paise nahi uthhaata,"
or, “I still refuse to pick up money that’s thrown
at me,” as Vijay says to Daawar. Cinema houses in Bombay
used to reach ear-shattering levels of cheering, whistling and
applause after this ever-popular line.
• “Main
jab bhi kisise dushmani mol leta hoon, saste-mahenge ki parwaah
nahi kartaa,” or, “Once I decide to pick a fight with
anyone, I don’t care about what it will cost me."
(Vijay to one of Samant’s henchman)
• “Uff
tumhare asool tumhare aadarsh!! Kis kaam ke hain tumhare asool!”,
or, “Oh, your damn principles and your damn values. What
good are your principles!!” (Vijay to Ravi)
• “Mere
Paas Maa Hai!!”, or, “I have Mom.” This line,
spoken by Ravi to Vijay, has become so incredibly famous that
it might as well the the tag-line for the film: it has become
the definitive dialogue with which the whole movie is associated.
Salim-Javed
have often admitted that the reason Amitabh fit so well into
his role as Vijay is because they actually wrote the screenplay
with him in mind. Despite this, one has to give credit to the
duo; they outdid themselves in terms of crisp and subtle dialogue-writing.
The development and treatment of the story is by far one of
the most believable ever showcased in a mainstream Bollywood
film. So, unlike SRK’s character in DDLJ (or in scores
of other equally fancy, urbane movies), the background of Vijay’s
extremely poor, destitute boy-turned-misguided-criminal character
in Deewaar does, in fact, have the ring of believability . Take
a walk down any busy street in Bombay and you will see dozens
of potential “Vijays” shining shoes just like the
character does as a boy in the movie.
But
Salim-Javed’s script was a daring detour from the mainstream
in more ways than one. Consider the oddities. The leading man
has no songs in the movie. There is absolutely no comedy - no
Johnny Lever or Asrani anywhere in sight. The only relief comes
through the use of three rather forgettable songs. Meanwhile,
the leading lady (played convincingly by Parveen Babi) is a
hooker, who -- as the narrative explicitly insists -- has sexual
relations with the hero. (Recall that this was 1975. Heck, even
in 1995, in DDLJ, doesn’t SRK’s character get into
a long explanation about how he knows “what the honor of
a Hindustani woman is?”) True, both characters' occupations
entailed a set of moral values that are less-than-perfect by
Indian middle-class standards, but the screenwriters still took
an enormous risk by depicting some pretty bold scenes . Yet
the power of the script was such that in the end, audiences
were rooting for both characters with great sympathy and support.
Finally, the leading man is an atheist (albeit superstitious).
Not only that, one of the now-famous temple scenes has Amitabh
clearly defiant and contemptuous towards God. Quite an audacious
step, considering modern heroes are always shown to be terribly
pious and godfearing.
While
the entire movie is emotionally gripping, there have been, over
the years, a few scenes in Deewaar that have reached almost
mythical proportions of popularity because of their absolute
cool-Amitabh factor or intensely charged melodramatic content.
Indeed it may not be an exaggeration to say that these scenes
are to Deewaar, what songs are to most other Bollywood movies.
In other words, they have been listened to (and watched) over
and over and over again by millions and millions of people.
They are:
•
The scene in which Vijay meets Daawar (a mafia boss) for the
first time, and Daawar makes a business proposition to Vijay.
•
The confrontation scene, in which Ravi and Maa find out about
Vijay’s mafia links.
•
The all-time famous temple scene, in which Vijay confronts God
and pleads for his mother’s life.
•
The penultimate scene of the movie with Maa cradling Vijay’s
head in her arms.
Finally,
the most significant evidence of Deewaar's superiority is the
fact that unlike other hit movies like Sholay and more recent
ones like DDLJ, no one has ever dared to copy it. It is the
one film whose magic other film-makers realized could not be
duplicated. The confluence of extraordinary acting and a uniquely
brilliant script cannot be converted into a formula and regenerated
ad nauseum. In
the end, that may be the biggest tribute Hindi cinema can pay
to this all-time, genuinely inimitable classic.
-
reviewed by Neeraj
