[3][4] The film stars Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan, alongside an ensemble cast of Neetu Singh, Nirupa Roy, Parveen Babi, Iftekhar, Madan Puri, Satyen Kappu and Manmohan Krishna.

The film's title signifies the wall that springs up between the two brothers, drawn apart by fate and circumstances in a time of socio-political turmoil.

[8][9][10][11][12] Deewaar was released worldwide on 24 January 1975 to critical acclaim and praise for its story, script, music cast performances (especially Bachchan, Kapoor and Roy).

He is a principled and well-respected trade union leader, who leads struggling labourers on a strike as they are depending on him to better their lives with concessions from their owner Badri Prasad.

The labourers even persecute Anand's family, and some of them drunkenly capture Vijay and tattoo his left arm with the Hindi words "मेरा बाप चोर है" (English: "My father is a thief") and .

In desperation, Sumitra brings Vijay and Ravi to Mumbai and resorts to low-wage manual labour to raise her sons as a single mother.

Although all his attempts at receiving a job are in vain, Ravi romances Veera, the daughter of DCP Narang, by whom he is sent for police training and soon earns the rank of Sub-Inspector.

In the process of fighting for his rights, Vijay refuses to pay the weekly extortion to the henchmen of the shipyard owner Samant, who is a merciless crime lord.

Meanwhile, DCP Narang provides Ravi his first assignment to apprehend and arrest some of the hardcore criminals and smugglers in Mumbai, which also include Daavar and Vijay.

After admitting Chander to a hospital under police custody, a remorseful Ravi visits his home, offering his family some food and confessing his action, but Chander's enraged mother berates Ravi and accuses him of colluding with the state in protecting those who store goods in warehouses, and hunting down petty thieves trying to feed their starving families.

However, Chander's father, who is a retired schoolteacher, forgives Ravi and justifies the shooting by stating that the stealing no matter of a lakh or of a penny is a crime, and that all criminals should be treated equally and it would lead to anarchy if all the poor and needy resort to the same life.

After hearing both sides from Chander's parents, Ravi, who was initially reluctant to act against his own brother, is finally motivated to agree to take his case from DCP Narang.

Shouldering past the loss of his mother and brother and many of his associates, Vijay enters into an intimate relationship with Anita, a prostitute whom he meets at a bar.

Meanwhile, Sumitra falls terminally ill and Vijay is also unable to visit her at the hospital due to the police appointed by Ravi to arrest him.

After an emotional moment, Anita dies in the arms of Vijay, who retaliates by brutally murdering Samant and his remaining henchmen, thus branding himself a criminal forever.

After getting hit by the gunshot, a gravely injured and dying Vijay uses a car to escape from Ravi and crashes it into the wall of the temple, where he reunites with Sumitra and pleads forgiveness.

[23] Salim–Javed credited Gunga Jumna as well as Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957) as the main inspirations for Deewaar, which they described as a "more urban, much more contemporary" take on their themes; while Mother India and Gunga Jumna took place in a rural context, Salim–Javed reinterpreted their themes in a contemporary urban context with Deewaar.

[20] The characterisations of the two brothers are sociologically contextualised to represent a form of urban conflict and drama, aimed at presenting a causal explanation for the sequence of events and Vijay's social alienation, with the narrative explaining his every action and decision, grounded in his memories and experiences.

[19] The 786 badge plays a powerful and symbolic role in several scenes,[14] saving Vijay at key moments[26] and signifying something ominous when he loses it.

After Anand rejected the script, casting plans changed and Khanna was to play Vijay and Navin Nischol was considered for Ravi.

[29] In 2014, Bachchan revealed that his iconic look in the film – a "denim blue shirt worn with khakee pants and a rope dangling over the shoulder" – was the result of a mistake by the tailor.

Eagle Home Video came out with a restored edition of this movie, preserving the original aspect ratio in a 4:3 pillar box and a DTS Master Audio (HD) in 2.0.

[13] It is one of the three Hindi films featured in the 2017 edition of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the others being Mother India (1957) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995).

[14] With the unprecedented growth of slums across India at the time, Vijay was seen as a new kind of hero, with his suppressed rage giving a voice to the angst of the urban poor.

[19] Deewaar, along with several later 1970s "angry young man" epics it inspired, such as Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), had similarities to elements later seen in 1980s Hong Kong heroic bloodshed films.