After reading Simon Booth's comment, I could not help comparing Deewar and Shakti. Deewar and Shakti have similar story lines but yet they are so different. In addition to being the story of a mother torn between two sons on the opposite side of the law, Deewar is also a comment on the prevailing socio economic conditions in India in mid 70s. It deals with unemployment, Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) unable to find a job despite having struggled so hard. It deals with the inability of people to get rich by legitimate means. Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) has to become a smuggler to fulfill his aspirations. There is also an idealist retired school teacher (A K Hangal) unable to make ends meet. Deewar brings out the failure of the system after thirty years of socialism. Shakti is story of relationships. More precisely the tense relationship of three characters - father, mother and son. Its the story of a father and son conflict with the mother unable to side with either. It is also the story of parents who miss their estranged son and cannot figure out what went wrong in bringing him up. Finally it is the story of unexpressed affection. Remember the final scene where dying Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) tells his father Ashwini (Dilip Kumar) that in spite of trying hard to not he always loved his father. And Ashwini says why did he not ever say so. Shakti is fairly consistent with the storyline. Deewar has some avoidable songs. The romance between Ravi and his girl friend distracts you from the story. Having said so much both are great movies. Every time I have found them to be equally engrossing.
