FILM REVIEW: VEER ZAARA (2004)

Producer: Yash Raj Films
Director: Yash Chopra
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukerji, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Boman Irani, Kiron Kher, Anupam Kher and Divya Dutta

RATING: 7/10

Background:
Yash Chopra hasn’t made a film for long. His last release Dil To Pagal Hai was a blockbuster and Yash Chopra has managed to get in the initial draw through this film. What now?

Synopsis:
Veer Pratap Singh (Shah Rukh Khan) is a rescue pilot with the Indian Air Force. On one of his sojourns, he bumps into a Pakistani girl Zaara Hayat Khan (Preity Zinta) who has come to India to immerse the ashes of her Sikh maid (Zohra Sehgal) who has brought her up with utmost affection. Zaara hasn’t informed her family about her journey and her family gets to know only through the other maid and Zaara’s companion Shabbo (Divya Dutta).

In the meantime, Zaara has fallen in love with the man who rescued her life after the bus that she was travelling in falls into a valley. The vessel containing the ashes of her maid falls down during the rescue operation and even that is rescued only after a small altercation between Veer and Zaara.

Veer helps Zaara immerse the ashes near a holy gurudwara in Punjab. Zaara asks how she can return the favour, so Veer asks her to spend a day with him and takes her to his village. He lives with Sumer Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) who is the elder brother of Veer’s father. Sumer’s Tamil wife Saraswati (Hema Malini) also lives in the house. The two have been taking care of Veer ever since his parents died. Now Zaara meets them and a song later is attached to the family as well.

As Veer accompanies Zaara to Atari Railway station to drop her to Pakistan, he is urged by Sumer Singh to express his love to Zaara. But it is then that Veer realises that Zaara is soon to be engaged to be married to Raza Shirazi (Manoj Bajpai) who is standing at the station. Nonetheless Veer does express his love to Zaara and tells her that he would give up his life for her anytime.

And now as in most movies, Zaara realises that she is indeed in love with Veer, but cannot compromise her father Jahangir Hayat Khan’s (Boman Irani) future as a politician in Pakistan. Jahangir wants Zaara to marry Raza Shirazi because that would help him achieve his dreams.

Now Jehangir’s wife Mariam (Kiron Kher) comes to know from Zaara that she does love Veer. But Zaara is slated to be engaged the next day. Veer finds out this news and after meeting Zaara in front of the Khan and Shirazi families, Zaara rushes to him and embraces him.

Raza still agrees to marry her for his political future if Zaara is ready to forget Veer. Mariam pleads with Veer to return to India and he does agree after a dramatic scene, which probably is the best moment in the film.

But as he enters the bus, Pakistani cops arrest him under false charges of spying after taking instructions from Raza who wants to make Veer pay for running his life and making him get married to a woman who does not love him.

Veer now cannot open his mouth to protect Zaara’s honour and agrees that he is a RAW agent and his name is Rajesh Rathore. He is jailed. 22 years later, a lawyer from a human rights organisation Samiya Siddqui (Rani Mukerji) opens his case and pleads with him to talk. Veer finally talks but tells her that he does not want Zaara or her family name tarnished and hence dissuades Samiya from referring to her at all.

Cut to the courtroom. As the prosecution lawyer (Anupam Kher) fires missive after missive, Samiya goes back to India to get Sumer Singh and his wife, but realises that they are dead. But she finds something very surprising there at their house, which leads to a twist in the tale.

Critique:
Veer Zaara drags in the first half. There are far too many songs, which defer the story’s movement. But one you have a celebrated cast, you need to dedicate quite a few feet of rawstock for them and that leads to prolonging of the love ballad. The second half is pacy. It has some fine moments as well.

The film script has been borrowed by Chopra’s own Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Anil Sharma’s Gadar and yes, the number 786 has been borrowed from Amitabh Bachchan’s Coolie and Deewar. Shah Rukh in prison is referred to as Qaidi No 786 as no one knows his name and he has never spoken.

Shah Rukh Khan delivers a virtuoso performance as Veer. He has had the guts to play a 50-year-old man at a time when heroes prefer to dye their hair black or in other colours but grey. There is so much vulnerability in the man that he begins to stun you at times.

Preity as Zaara has a lot of scope to perform and she carries herself admirably. Zinta again has grey hair towards the end of the film and she carries that off well with dignity.

Rani as Samiya shows a lot of depth in her performance. She is not a heroine in the film, she has no songs, but that leads to a lot of intensity in her character as a value-filled Pakistani girl who is determined to win the case to open doors for other women in the country to be able to fly.

Amitabh Bachchan’s entry playing hockey is quite nice and leads to a lot of cheer among the audience. And so is Hema’s. Their dance together is also quite refreshing coming soon after Baagbaan.

There is a reference to Shah Rukh as Veeru, which brings back a Sholay moment. Divya Dutta and Kirron Kher have a lot of pathos in their roles, Anupam Kher is wasted and Boman Irani as Preity’s father looks out of place speaking in Urdu.

The songs don’t seem to be in tune with today’s time, something that one feared. The music arrangement by Late Madan Mohan’s son Sanjeev Kohli in an attempt to recreate the music, didn’t work. Except a couple of songs like Tere Liye and Yeh Des Hai Mera, you do not remember another song when you walk out of the theatre.

The cinematography by Anil Mehta is breathtaking in the initial few reels when there is scope for him to deliver. The editing is not up to the mark, but what can an editor do when writer Aditya Chopra decides to wield the stick and have his way.

The choreography is just about ordinary and there’s too much of Punjabi folk music and dialogues in the film that one wonders whether the Chopras were looking at a possibility for the film to release in Pakistan.

Also the last scene speech of Shah Rukh in the court eulogising India and Pakistan followed by Anupam Kher’s remark to Rani about how people on both sides still remember the pangs of Partition and the Indio-Pak wars and continue to have hatred for each other, after she wins the case makes one feel that Chopra - the king of romance wants love between India and Pakistan to blossom to enable his films release there.

Yash Chopra scores in the emotional scenes. No one can take the credit from him, but he should try for a fresher formula, never mind if the length of the film is smaller.

Conclusion: This sarson ka saga, set in the corn fields of Punjab is eye-candy and worth a single watch, but Chopra needs to use the scissors to cut his film as well when he can cut across borders with ease.

Reviewed by: Qamar

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