8. Deewaar - 1975

• Amitabh’s character was supposedly based on the smuggler, Haji Mastan
• The key-shaped pendant that Neetu Singh sports in the film was presented by Rishi Kapoor at the height of their romance
• In the year of blockbusters like Sholay and Jai Santoshi Maa, Deewaar got the Filmfare awards for film, script, direction and supporting actor (Shashi Kapoor)
• Vyjantimala was the original choice for Nirupa Roy’s role. Rajesh Khanna and Navin Nischol for Vijay and Ravi.
• The screenplay minus the dialogues was written in just 18 days

Nirupa Roy, as Vijay and Ravi’s (Shashi Kapoor’s) mother, is the film’s moral centre. Kapoor shines as the carefree Ravi who grows to be the unwavering cop and finally hunts down and kills his brother. The fact that Vijay, Ravi and their mother represent rebellion, duty and a deeply ethical value system respectively, makes Deewaar an epic morality play. But thanks to Amitabh, the extreme greyness of Vijay’s character doesn’t stop the audience from siding with him.

And, of course, its many unforgettable sequences. Whether it is Vijay’s meeting with Ravi at a dark street corner when he boasts of his wealth and is silenced by Ravi’s "Mere paas maa hai", or his long monologue with god listing all the atrocities committed on him since childhood; Deewaar is studded with scenes that still raise goose pimples and results in a whole larger than the sum of its parts.