The Towering "Deewaar" of Success

The era of Golden Jubilees has long gone. In fact, Gen Z is probably unfamiliar with the term which was once the most coveted standard for a successful movie - 50 weeks of an uninterrupted run at the movie theatres. For Deewaar, that milestone has been done and dusted. On 24 January, 2025, it achieved new heights as it continues to reign our collective consciousness, fifty years after its release. Not a day passes when one or the other of its many memorable lines is transformed into a meme on social media. With every such retelling, it reaffirms the vitality and relevance of the original. In a realm where content is king, this is one "Wall" that refuses to gather moss, crack or crumble. Amitabh Bachchan's dialogue in the film -- "Jo pachchees baras mein nahi hua hai woh ab hoga" (What has never happened in 25 years will happen now) -- resonates today in the context of Deewaar's domination of the Indian psyche, with an upgrade of an additional 25 years! 

The magic of its enduring aura continues to be debated and discussed. While the credit has almost always gone - and deservedly so - to the writers Salim-Javed for crafting the perfect screenplay and dialogues to be ever written for Indian  cinema, and a tour de force performance of its lead actor Amitabh Bachchan - the coming together of a stellar crew and their contributions to the creation of this cinematic magic has not found much play in popular media. 

So, it's high time that a closer look is taken at the role that my father, Art Director Desh Mukerji, played in creating part of the Deewaar magic. Ranjani Mazumdar, professor of cinema studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, and author of Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City, says: "In all the 50th anniversary celebrations of  Yash Chopra's Deewaar, written by the dynamic writer duo Salim Javed,  we must not forget the urban landscape the film showcased through careful art direction that combined actual locations with simulated sets constructed in studios. Desh Mukerji's exquisite attention to detail and texture is evident in the creation of the spaces that were essential to the power of the storytelling. The film transports us across construction sites, under bridges, hutments, high rise buildings, schools, railway tracks, the dockyard, a palatial home interior with a classic spiral staircase, hotel lobbies, bars, a temple and more."

Desh Mukerji - Art Director

Take for example the scene which features the most memorable line of the film - "Mere paas Maa hai" - which is shot under a bridge that was created in Rajkamal Studio. Says Mazumdar: "Vijay  (played by Bachchan) evokes the metaphor of the bridge which morally separates the identities of the two brothers within the city.  At the meeting with his brother Ravi (played by Shashi Kapoor), Vijay suggests that despite the loss and breakdown of all the bridges that connected them, the physical bridge imprinted with shared childhood memories is the only one that cannot be broken. This is the one moment in the film where the art direction really comes to the fore with a power so significant that it is referred to in the dialogue." The Bridge becomes integral to the emotional arcs of the two brothers - providing shelter to the siblings and their mother in the first part of the film and then overlooking the break up of ties when Ravi strikes a powerful emotional blow to Vijay with his unforgettable line: "Mere paas Maa hai" (Mother is on my side).

Screen Grab of The Bridge Scene from Deewaar

Filmmaker Jaideep Sen says:  "The starkness of the Bridge and its lower strata of society milieu was so compelling that the Bridge became a character of the film too, to the extent that its creators felt that the confrontation of the values between the two brothers happens under the same bridge, where in the sledgehammer prologue of the film, the young Vijay tells his mother "aur sabsa bada fark yeh hai" showing the "mera baap chor hai" tattoo on his left forearm."

Marutirao Kale - Assistant Art Director

The set for the bridge - as the late Marutirao Kale, assistant art director, recalled during a conversation with me a few years ago - "was constructed when one night at 11, Dada called to tell me that the set had to be put up quickly. He had prepared the groundplan, and we worked for six days and nights straight. It was a good feeling when Satyajit Ray's art director Bansi Chandragupta visited our set in Rajkamal Studio and complimented us on our work."

Filmmaker Jaideep Sen

Adds Sen, "One word that I'd like to go for to describe the art direction of Deewaar is: minimalistic. It was just so apt and never in your face, which is what a total team player is all about and which its esteemed art director, the late Desh Mukerji was. It's the sign of a very secure artist when he doesn't want to hog the limelight but ensures that all the faculties of cinema amalgamate into a smooth union of individual talents."

Filmmaker Ashok Bhushan, and brother-in-law of actor Manoj Kumar, who worked on several films along with my father, including Purab aur Pachim, Shor and Kranti, says, "Every year, some film or the other celebrates its 50th year anniversary of its release but there are only a few films that have left their mark - like Mother India, Ganga Jamuna, Purab aur Paschim, Guide. One such film is Deewaar. The reason why everyone remembers it today, is because it's a 'complete film'. Everyone's contribution was equal... you cannot say that the director did better than the writer or the writers were superior to the actors or the cinematographer's work was better than the art director. Every aspect of the film added value to it. Talking of Desh Da's work, the settings were so realistic, nobody can tell that a majority of the sets were created in Rajkamal Studio - a bridge, a mandir, dockyard...and many others."

Fimmaker Ashok Bhushan

The Dockyard was yet another setting that gives the film its most powerful storytelling moments. Film historian SMM Ausaja feels that "Desh Mukerji's contribution to Deewaar was quiet but effective. The docks, the ambience of the canteen, the godown where the famous fight took place...it's evident that he followed the script and the situations minutely and enhanced their impact."

"Bachchan's most memorable lines and action scenes," says Mazumdar, "were placed in simulated sets that were mixed with actual locations. In the workers' canteen, Mukerji created the impression of the dockyard visible through the window, and it is here that Vijay announces his refusal to pay the dockyard extortionists. His showdown with the extortionists is staged in a storage area loaded with oil drums, sacks of material and cardboard boxes. After beating up the goons, he emerges to a cheering crowd and proceeds to wash his face at a tap installed to give the space a sense of a real dockyard." 

Prof. Ranjani Mazumdar

The story dwells not just on the conflicting values of the two brothers but also the physical differences in their lifestyles, offering yet another opportunity to mine these aspects visually. Says Mazumdar, "When Vijay becomes a wealthy man, his house is meticulously designed with wallpaper, gleaming hardwood doors and arches. Similarly when Ravi chases a young boy who has stolen some bread, he meets his father (A.K. Hangal) in a working class, shabby interior -- again conjured with tremendous attention to detail: a lantern, photos on the wall, raw wooden poles, hanging clothes and the impression of another house visible from the doorway.  Great art direction is defined by the ability to perceive the diversity of locations not through the obvious elements but through meticulous attention to details - objects, wall decor, material texture and impressionistic backdrops. The quality of Desh Mukerji's art direction is visible throughout the film and has contributed significantly to Deewaar's enduring status as a landmark city film of the 1970s."

Avers Bhushan, "Desh Da was well known for putting up authentic and realistic sets. And Deewaar reflects that. His art direction is a crucial contribution to Deewaar's legacy." 

Bollywood lore has it that Deewaar was an updated remake of yet another giant of a film - Ganga Jamuna - in which Dilip Kumar essayed the role of the rebel Ganga pitted against his straight and narrow brother Jamuna. And how apt that my father was also the film's Associate Art Director.