Magic Vs Logic in Deewar (Part I)

I think Deewar is Salim-Javed’s ‘the best’ piece of work in their career. For me Sholay is the clever amalgamation of various mise-en-scene* from number of movies all over the world. Sholay is not original – it’s heavily but in right manner influenced by various film genres from across the globe. By ‘not original’ here I mean the backdrop of the film is not realistic. The portrayal of Indian village in Sholay is utterly fictitious or rather it’s portrayed in a manner to please the urban audience of that time.

But in case of Deewar, I always think that its narrative and mise-en-scene are truly originally Indian. It has the real urban ethos of 1970s’ India. It explores the moral dilemma of the urban middle class, it shows the dark side the underworld and at the end overtly it shows the triumph of good over the evil, moral over the immoral, ethical over the unethical, right over the wrong but at the core it subtly and successfully blurs the line between the two.

The magic of Deewar had worked and will continue to work for sure! But does this magic defy the logic. No, not in the entire film but at just one point… and at very crucial point in the film.

In Deewar, at the end of the movie Vijay is madly after the underworld don Samant as he has killed Anita (Anita is also carrying his child at the time of death). Ravi comes to know about it and lays siege around the building where Samant is staying. Vijay kills Samant – he is no mood to surrender – he somehow manages to escape but Ravi notices and starts chasing him. Vijay starts running and Ravi follows. The chase continues for a while and finally comes the moment when Ravi fires the fatal shot.

Now the question is why doesn’t Ravi shoot in Vijay’s leg ? When on the other hand in the middle of the movie while chasing a minor boy (who steals ‘rotis’) Ravi had particularly taken care to shoot in the boy’s leg. In case of his own brother, how come this time Ravi forgets to shoot in his leg and instead fires the fatal shot?


*Mise-en-scène: The term mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before the camera —composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting. Mise-en-scène also includes the positioning and movement of actors on the set, which is called blocking