Deewaar (2004 film)

Plot

Indian Army Major Ranvir Kaul and some 30 of his colleagues were captured in Pakistan and held under brutal conditions for 33 years. Kaul attempts another escape but is caught, beaten, berated and thrown back in prison. During the fracas one of his men does flee and through a sympathetic friend, Jabbar, sends a letter home. Kaul's wife and son petition the Indian Army but the General, though sympathetic, has his hands tied. He raises the subject and Pakistan will deny it and immediately the men will be shot; he cannot authorize Army action absent hard evidence (not just a letter); there are no other options. Kaul's son, Gaurav, sets off to find his father.

Gaurav meets Jabbar and discovers that his father has been transferred to a different prison under the cunning and sadistic Sohail. Kaul meets another set of captured Indian POWs at this new prison. Kaul attempts another escape. One man sacrifices himself on the electric fence as others go through. Sohail bemusedly sighs as the others, once past the fence, are blown up by the landmines. Kaul and the remaining prisoners are again beaten and kicked back into their barracks. One of the prisoners, Khan, manages to evade the landmines and escapes. Gaurav brings him to safety.

Gaurav attacks a military courier and, using his uniforms, infiltrates a Pakistan Army office block. He steals a set of plans which reveal a water main under the prison. His father and the men can dig their way to this main and crawl out. With great reluctance Khan gets arrested again. Sohail correctly guesses that Khan is back for a reason. Khan discloses to Kaul that his son is here; this news, and the water main, is a great inspiration for the men.

The men quietly begin digging a tunnel to the water main. They discover the body of an Indian Army Captain Jatin in the debris under the prison, but this Jatin is among them! Khan and Kaul discover that he is in fact a Pakistani spy. Gaurav and Khan had planned the escape for the night of the tenth and Jatin, the spy, had dutifully reported this back to Sohail. Kaul and Khan decide that the escape will happen on the ninth. Jatin is not told of this but the men manage to send a coded message to Gaurav. The following day Khan notices the number 9 scrawled on an army supply truck entering the prison: it is Gaurav’s reply. He will await the men near the water main outlet on the ninth.

On the night of the escape the men overpower the guards and kill Jatin. They enter the water main and begin digging away the last few meters of remaining debris. The knocking in the pipes travels up to Sohail’s kitchen sink; Sohail quickly discovers the escape and hotly pursues the men down the pipe. Gaurav digs from the other side and, just in the nick of time, the debris is cleared and father and son are reunited. The men make it through. One of them sacrifices himself on a land mine inside the water main which caves in and blocks Sohail.

Gaurav leads his father and the men to a railway line but the train is delayed. The men split up to avoid detection and arrange to meet at dawn near a border point. They arrive at the border point but Sohail and his men are in close pursuit. There is a firefight. Khan puts up a brave fight but is shot down. Ranvir Kaul and Gaurav and the handful of remaining prisoners finally get across the border in a Pakistan army truck. Sohail is right behind them but his jeep is disarmed and he is surrounded by Kaul and the prisoners. Kaul points to the border line behind them; they are now on Indian soil. Kaul, now an Indian Army soldier, attacks and kills Sohail in hand to hand combat, and throws his body across the border.

The film ends as Ranvir Kaul and his men are reinstated in the Indian Army and salute the Indian tricolor.

Cast

Music

Music for the film was composed by Aadesh Shrivastav. The lyrics were written by Nusrat Badr.