Deewaar (1975 Film)

Deewaar (1975 film)

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.

Deewaar was a ground-breaking work. It was one of a few films which established Bachchan as the "angry young man" of Bollywood cinema and Parveen Babi as the "new Bollywood woman" whose character Anita is "a liberated working girl, smoking, drinking and sleeping with her lover, defying every Hindi film heroine rule." 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.

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 as the 4th highest grossing Bollywood film of 1975. Indiatimes ranks Deewaar amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.