By far the most often quoted (and parodied) line in Deewar is: Mere paas maa hai.
It comes at the point where the smuggler Vijay (Amitabh) taunts his brother Ravi (Shashi) saying he now has every material comfort he can think of, as opposed to his honest cop brother. And Ravi responds by referring to the one thing Vijay doesn’t have: the support of their mother. While this isn’t the single important choice that the entire movie hinges on (that would be Vijay working for Dawar), it is definitely the one that matters most to Vijay.
When I think about it, this choice seems to be the jump-off point for Sanjay Gupta’s Aatish. It’s like, he sat down after watching Deewar and asked himself: What if the mom chose the criminal over the cop? I mean, the guy turned to that life so that he could support his family, not because he wanted to. Surely his mom recognizes and appreciates how difficult that choice must have been for him?
In essence, that is what Aatish is about. Sanjay Dutt becomes a criminal, his brother Atul Agnihotri becomes a cop, and when they face off, their mom Tanuja chooses Sanjay. Everything else about that movie is fluff and nonsense. Which is a problem, because once you see past that interesting idea, there’s really very little to write home about.
I wonder if there are more examples like that: Movies that develop the same way and then diverge from one crucial choice. If you can think of any, let me know, willya?
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