Shakti & Deewar

I watched movie “Shakti” yesterday and could not stop wondering about the similarities between this and one of amitabh’s biggest blockbuster “Deewar”. Deewar has been written extensively about, by people close to me as well as people far away but somehow not much has been mentioned about this movie, apart from some references here and there (for example, johny lever praising yusuf bhai’s acting in movie “love ke liye kuch bhi karega”).

To start with, there are numerous similarities between the two – a scrupulously honest cop who would go to extreme to fulfill his work duties, worker turned criminal pissed off by the law & justice, amitabh having a distinct childhood allegiance with the don and his stoic smile-ridden face in the whole movie and a mother torn between the constrained relation between his two beloved. Shakti does not lack at all in intense scene sequences, for example, the scene where amitabh walks home just before getting arrested on false murder charges is one of the most powerful scenes in the movie, and is suitably kept quiet. There are so many similarities in plot setting that it is difficult to believe that these have come from different directors and have a seven years gap between their releases.

I think the place where movie falls behind Deewar is the lack of a powerful script and punch quotient. It has no magical billa no 786 , nothing had been imprinted physically on amitabh ( Dilip kumar saying “kar do uska khoon” is emotionally imprinted on amitabh but it lacks that strength) and no one is standing outside the temple but refuses to go in. Although, the script still has some deep meaning dialogues lying here and there but fail to become the highlight to the movie. For example, amitabh saying that “main kuch nahi bhoolta” and smita patil replying to amitabh’s sarcastic remark about possible righteousness rhetoric saying that “main aisa kuch nahi kahoongi jo tum nahi jaante”, could have been the punch dialogues but somehow they come no near the famous ones from Deewar. The place, where amitabh drinks and laments that he is a poisonous snake, could have been one of the defining scene of the movie but it has been somewhat wasted by the director.

Both the films capture similar sentiments though, underlying the importance of work ethic and people being proud of honesty, exemplified by rakhee refusing to get treatment by amitabh’s money. I was reading a few days back that Rakhee was offered smita patil’s role as amitabh’s love interest in the movie, but she rather chose to be his mother as she found this to be a more demanding role, which I definitely agree. Well, if you are amitabh’s fan and want to appreaciate one of his best but underrated performance in hindi film industry, then this movie is definitely worth a watch!