The scene I am talking about is from the story of two brothers, who were thrown by fate on the either sides of the law. The movie found parallels with the story of Haji Mastan, who was a dockworker and later became a powerful smuggler. The movie also established a cult following for Amitabh Bachchan and cemented his angry young man image that started off with Zanjeer.
Who can forget the image of Amitabh Bachchan in a denim shirt (knotted at the waist) and khaki trousers? Yes, I am talking about “Deewar.” Even though, there are similarities between Deewar and movies like Mother India (Mother choosing the right over wrong) and Ganga Jamuna (tale of two brothers on the opposite sides of the law), Salim-Javed took it to another level by doing away with stereotyping. It was a perfect script equipped with powerful screenplay and megawatt dialogues. Many dialogues from the movie are imprinted in popular memory - “main pheke hue paise nahi utha ta,” “Peter, tum mujhe dhund rahe ho,” “Jao pahle tum us aadmi ka sign lekar aao jisne mere haath pe yeh likh diya tha, “Mere paas… Maa hai,” “Khush toh bahot hogey tum!” But, let’s take a closer look at a very powerful albeit a less popular dialogue:
Vijay (Amitabh) is working as a laborer at the docks. A local gangster collects money from each dockworker on payday as protection money. One day, a new coolie refuses to pay and he dies. Vijay witnesses it. But, he doesn’t react. When the camera captures him, we can see the anger seething in his eyes.
The scene cuts to the restaurant where Vijay is silently smoking a beedi. Other dockworkers are discussing about this incident and are saying that the new coolie should have given money; what’s the big deal? He lost his life for a few pennies. Vijay, deep in his own thoughts is also listening to the conversation. Camera zooms at him and gives the audience a glimpse of his resentment.
When a dockworker says, “25 baras ho gaye, humne to nahi dekha, kisi coolie ko hafta dene se inkar karte hue,” Vijay’s anger bubbles to the surface. He removes his beedi and says, “Rahim chacha, jo pachis baras me nahi hua wo ab hoga, Agle hafte ek aur coolie, in mavalion ko paisa dene se inkaar karne waala hai” The dialogue creates a tense situation. Vijay seems confident and the audience are intrigued by this. He keeps the beedi in his hand. Camera zooms at him and audience can see the determination as well as some guilt in his eyes. Guilt that he didn’t do anything at the right time and determination that he wants to stop this in the future.
He throws the beedi and gets up. Camera holds him when he waits for a split-second. This additional second tells the audience that he has thought through what he wants to do. He knows the repercussions and is ready to face them. There is also no melodrama in the dialogue. He doesn’t say, the coolie died and I want to avenge that. Only a lazy writer will try to justify. The dialogue should be more than what the character says. It should be just as implicit as it is explicit. It should add another layer to the drama. And Salim-Javed got it just right.
Trivia - Yash Chopra’s first choice for the role of Vijay Verma (that eventually played by Amitabh) was Rajesh Khanna, but due to Salim-Javed’s fall out with Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh was offered the role.
