Deewaar (1975)

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I had for a long time heard about the most famous actor in India, possibly one of the most famous in the world, but I had never seen any of his films, so I was looking forward to seeing this Hindi language film featured in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book. Basically the Verma brothers Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) and Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) follow different life choices and career paths, Vijay becomes a criminal expert in smuggling and Ravi becomes a police inspector assigned to locate lawbreakers. They are the son of trade unionist Anand Verma (Satyendra Kapoor) who used his family as bait going against the management of his firm, and it resulted in being defeated and disgraced, and unable to cope with public humiliation he deserts the family. The two sons are raised by mother Sumitra Devi (Nirupa Roy) and taken to Bombay City, but as time goes by the two individually cause her, as a single mother, terrible trials and tribulations because of their choices. Vijay, the older of the brothers, has grown up aware of his father's humiliation and is victimised by those who know of it as well, he did start well in his youth as a simple boot polisher and dockland worker, but turns to a life of crime and a leading figure in the underworld. Ravi gets a good reputation for bringing law and order to the city, and his next assignment is to find a big name in the smuggling ring, he gets a terrible shock when he finds out it is his own brother, so he has no courage to arrest him and bring more shame to the family, despite his numerous opportunities. Also starring Parveen Babi as Anita, Neetu Singh as Leena Narang, Manmohan Krishna as DCP Narang, Madan Puri as Samant and Iftekhar as Mulk Raj Dhabaria. Bachchan as the young man who follows the wrong path is great at creating a both hateful and sympathetic character, and as his law abiding Kapoor does very well also, the story is just about easy to follow, a brother going bad and the other good and not stopping the law breaking due to the family bond and wanting to avoid disgrace, it is certainly a worthwhile drama. Good!

When we have assimilated the rave views let's look at the glaring goofs in the film!It starts with a flashback of a mother's memories but in the flashback are intimate details and very private matters about her sons which she never saw!Okay let's forget about that!the director must have gotten confused! Now take Vijay's slim, slender body and his first fight with the dockyard gangsters behind locked doors!He is beaten with a spade,not a plastic one, yet whereas a normal man would surely be out for several hours from such blows Vijay seems to gain strength from this beating!The acting is superb of course as well as the script but the ideas are taken from Hollywood as usual.The slickness of the movie hood-winked the plausible public but it would have been a better movie had there been more realism like the true facts about Haji Mastaan!He was not simply a smuggler but a champion of the weak and helpless of Bombay and especially the Muslims!Somewhere in his youth he was humilated,beaten and disgraced by the Hindus and took to crime to settle that account and give the Muslims of Bombay protection.

This movie was made in the same year as Sholay, coincidentally they were both written by Salim Javed. Everything was of the highest from the script right down to the performances. Amitabh was the best, especially in his dying scene at the end. This was Salim Javed's trademark, Amitabh died in Dewaar and Sholay, Sunil Dutt in Shaan, Kamal Hassan in Saagar and Tina in Mr India.Nirupa Roy was fabulous as Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh's mother. The dialogues were simply great, my favourite one is "Mere pass Maa hai". The only downside were the songs, there were only a few hummable tunes. Yash Chopra you should be proud of yourself.

OH WHAT A BRILLIANT PERFORMANCE BY AMITABH, IT SEEMS THAT AMITABH ACTS IN THE FILM MUCH MORE EMOTIONALLY THAN A PERSON IN REAL LIFE. HE MAKES US FEEL AS IF EVERYTHING IS REALLY TRUE.ONCE AGAIN I AM FORCED TO SAY AMITABH'S PERFORMANCE WAS UNMATCHED.HIS VOICE IS THE MAIN FACTOR OF HIS SUCCESS THAT WINS THE HEART OF THE MILLIONS.AND EVEN TODAY IF I WATCH THE FILM AGAIN, MY FEELINGS WOULD BE THE SAME