Veer Zaara (Romance ,2004)





Starring

Shah Rukh Khan .... Veer Pratap Singh

Preity Zinta .... Zaara Hayaat Khan

Rani Mukherjee .... Saamiya Siddiqui



Director : Yash Chopra



While going to watch a Yash Chopra movie, one can almost predict what one is going to see. Two people fall in love, but then separate because the girl is going to marry the man of her parent’s choice. Like any true-blooded lover, the hero goes to the girl’s place and tries to win over her parents.



However, if you go to watch Veer Zaara, expect a little surprise from the master of romantic films.



Chopra sticks to his generic style in Veer Zaara, and what we have is a touching love story strewn with drama and songs against the backdrop of mustard fields and snow-clad mountains.



What’s new in Veer Zaara is that its story moves across two nations. It is not just a love legend but also a human drama in which the protagonist Veer is transmuted from a buoyant and chivalrous man in the first half into a silent and retrospective prisoner languishing in Pakistani jails for 22 years in the second half.



It is a novel (and noble) idea to make a love story between an Indian man and a Pakistani girl and only few attempts have been made in the past to make such films. But Veer Zaara goes a little overboard in harping on the ‘love beyond borders’ theme.



The movie begins like any other Yash Chopra flick with the slow love happening between Veer and Zaara after their accidental meeting as Veer goes about showing her his hometown Punjab and takes her to visit his uncle and aunt (Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini) who fostered him like their own son.



As expected, the viewer is subject to not less than half a dozen songs in the first half. In fact, a few songs could easily have been done away with, particularly the courtroom song Tere Liye that looks simply ridiculous.



Yash Chopra keeps the audience interest alive with regular twists in the story – the sudden appearance of Zaara’s groom-to-be Raza (Manoj Bajpai) who takes her back to Lahore. And then Veer flying to Pak to meet Zaara and confronting her in the presence of her entire family only to be turned down and later arrested on the charges of spying and thrown into jail for 22 years.



The story now becomes more of a human drama and gets new life with the coming of Rani Mukherjee as a Pakistani lawyer determined to find Veer’s truth.



Rani has the best role in the film and she has justified it with a terrific performance that will get her an award. Shahrukh shows flashes of versatility by moving away from his usual repertory of facial expressions while Preity too does a noticeable job with a performance that didn’t demand much histrionics in the first place.



In short, Veer Zaara is a movie that will appeal to many. Although it dabbles in drama at the cost of realism, the movie does pluck a few strings at heart with a story that comes as a refreshing change in these times of sexually explicit flicks.





Synopsis





After a long gap of seven years, Yash Chopra returns to direction with a movie about love and human relationships that cannot be constrained by borders and nationalities. Both actresses in the film – Preity Zinta and Rani Mukherjee – play Pakistani women and Shah Rukh Khan plays an Indian pilot.



A movie that aims to bridge the distance in the hearts of Indians and Pakistanis, Veer Zaara tells the story of squadron leader Veer Pratap Singh (Shahrukh), a rescue pilot with the Indian Air Force. He is a humble man who gives without asking, who loves unconditionally and keeps no prejudice in his heart.



One day, while on duty, Veer meets Zaara Hayaat Khan (Preity), daughter of a Pakistani politician who has come to India to fulfill her surrogate mother's death wish. Zaara is stranded because of a bus accident and Veer, true to his nature, helps her. The time Veer and Zaara spend together forms an unshakable bond between them, a bond that flowers into pure love.



But destiny had something else in store for Veer and Zaara.



Twenty-two years later, Veer is a man languishing in Pakistani jails for more than two decades. All this time he has not spoken a word and spent months and years in a dazed state, lost in his memories.



Saamiya Siddiqui (Rani), a Pakistani lawyer is given Veer’s case. Saamiya is an idealist whose mission in life is to uphold justice and fight for women's empowerment. Veer’s case is her first one, and has been purposely given to her to dissuade her from being successful.



Veer’s case is by no degrees an easy case. A man who hasn’t uttered a word for more than twenty years and she has to fight for him. Saamiya takes her time with Veer and slowly he responds. And when she comes to know his story, she is so deeply moved that she decides to fight for his justice against all odds...



Veer Zaara also stars Kiron Kher, Divya Dutta, Boman Irani, Anupam Kher, Zohra Segal, S. M. Zaheer, Rushad Rana, Tom Alter and Gurdas Mann.

The film has music by late maestro Madan Mohan, whose unused melodies have been reworked by his son for the songs in the film.





review by Apun Ka Choice