Many years ago came a Deewar that cemented Amitabh Bachchan's image of an angry young man and the superstar of Hindi film industry. Now has come another Deewar that crumbles under the weight of its own shortcomings.
The movie, produced by Gaurang Doshi, tells the tale of escape of 33 Indian prisoners of war, from a high security prison in Pakistan. They were captured in the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
Director Milan Luthria tells his story in two parallel narratives. The first one shows the plight of the prisoners who are led by Major Ranvir Kaul (Amitabh Bachchan). The second one focuses on Major's son Gaurav (Akshaye Khanna) who undertakes a journey to Pakistan to help his father escape.
Determined to 'bring home' his father and other Indian prisoners, Gaurav crosses over to Pakistan illegally. There he meets Radhika (Amrita Rao).
Radhika is quite desirable and Gaurav too develops feelings for her. But he doesn't forget the real reason he came to Pakistan for. So he seeks the help of Khan (Sanjay Dutt) to manage the escape of prisoners.
Deewar could have been hard hitting had the story been presented more authentically and without resorting to jingoism. While the director overexposes the barbaric attitude of the Pakistani officer (Aditya Shrivastav), it shows the Indian prisoners as heroes with indomitable spirit.
The planning of the escape strategy of prisoners, their eventual escape, the ensuing chase, the resulting massacre in the final hour of the movie are quite gripping, but the second half could have easily done without the romantic track between Akshaye and Amrita and also the two songs that only breaks the pace of story.
Also it doesn't make any sense why the 33 prisoners chose to escape in the broad daylight, despite knowing that it was a high security prison and 18 attempts to break out had bore no freedom in the past.
Deewar is supported by commendable performances by Amitabh, Akshay and Sanjay Dutt but it is weakened by an inaptly written script and absence of attention to minute details that create the ambience of a story. Although the film is stylishly shot, and has a grand look, but this grandeur fizzles out and Deewar crumbles because the director fails to present the story emphatically.
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