Deewaar 1975

Anand Verma is a principled, widely respected trade union leader who lives a modest life with his wife Sumitra Devi and their two sons, Vijay Verma and Ravi Verma. He dedicates himself to organizing a strike to win concessions for exhausted laborers from their hard-nosed owner, Badri Prasad. But the tide turns dark when Prasad abducts Anand’s family and forces him to sign a contract that strips the workers of their hard-won rights, threatening not just the livelihoods of the men but the safety of their loved ones.

The truth behind Anand’s coerced signature remains hidden from the workers, who interpret his actions as a betrayal. They unleash their anger on him, beating him nearly to death, and then turn their wrath toward his family. The humiliation deepest in Vijay’s heart is tattooed across his arm by drunken assailants:

मेरा बाप चोर है

मेरा नाम विजय है और पूरा नाम विजय वर्मा है

Despite the public scorn, Anand escapes the town, drifting through life on trains and abandoning the family he once held dear. Sumitra, a widow, takes their two sons to Mumbai, where she toils as a low-wage laborer on the city’s fringes, and the family makes a home on the footpath beneath a massive bridge that shelters countless homeless people.

Growing up in the slums, Vijay Verma carries the weight of his father’s fall from grace, his tattoo a constant reminder of the past. He learns to survive on the streets—starting as a shoeshiner and later taking on shipyard labor—sacrificing schooling so that his brother can pursue an education. By contrast, Ravi Verma becomes a model of law and order, pursuing a career in the police with unwavering resolve. He even wins the heart of Veera, daughter of the respected DCP DCP Narang, and begins police training that will pit him against the brothers he once called family.

As Ravi climbs the ranks, he is tasked with cracking down on hard-core criminals, including the enigmatic Daavar and the shadowy gold-smuggler underworld. The path soon leads him to confront his own brother when he discovers Vijay’s wealth derived from crime. A painful personal conflict unfolds: Ravi must arrest the man he once called family, even as Vijay refuses to surrender and defends the life he has constructed for his mother and himself. The tension escalates when Ravi, in the line of duty, shoots a poor young thief named Chander in the leg while attempting to stop a theft, a decision that haunts him and ignites a family moral debate between mercy and justice.

The couple’s separate arcs reach a fever pitch as Ravi arrests many henchmen from Samant’s gang and Daavar’s operations, while Vijay slips deeper into the criminal world and begins a sexual relationship with Anita, a bar-prostitute who becomes pregnant with his child. Anand’s body is later found in a train, and his funeral is held with quiet reverence. Anita urges Vijay to erase the tattoo that marks him, but he replies that no scar on the skin can ever wipe away the stain on his heart.

Sumitra’s illness becomes a turning point: Vijay, unable to visit because police guard his movements, experiences a moment of spiritual doubt inside a temple, directly challenging the deity that once turned his heart away from faith. Miraculously, Sumitra recovers, much to the relief of Ravi and Veera, marking a fragile reconciliation in their fractured family.

When Anita reveals she is pregnant, Vijay vows to reform, surrender to the authorities, and seek forgiveness for Sumitra and Ravi. He calls Sumitra to share his plan and asks her to visit the temple for her blessing. But the tide turns once more when Samant and his remaining henchmen brutally murder Anita in retaliation. Enraged, Vijay kills Samant and his gang, sealing his fate as a criminal in the eyes of the law.

Ravi confronts the consequences of his duty and the blood between brothers. The two finally meet at the crime scene, and Ravi pleads for Vijay to surrender. A gunfight ends with Ravi shooting Vijay in the arm and heart. Barely alive, Vijay escapes in a car and crashes into the temple wall, reuniting with Sumitra in her embrace as Ravi arrives, devastated by the loss and the burden of his actions. The film closes with DCP Narang and the police congratulating Ravi, along with Veera and Sumitra, for their pursuit of justice—even as Ravi bears the heavy weight of remorse for how it all ended.