Veer Zara Movie Review

Crew
Producer Yash Raj Films
Director Yash Chopra
Music Madan Mohan
Lyrics Javed Akthar

Characters
Shah Rukh Khan: Veera Pratap Singh
Preity Zinta: Zara Hayat Khan
Rani Mukherjee: Saamiya Siddiqui
Manoj Bajpai: Raza
Amitabh Bachchan: Sumer Singh
Hema Malini: Saraswati
Divya Dutta: Shabbo
Kiron Kher: Mariam
Boman Irani: Jahangir Hayat Khan

Rating: 4/5

Movie Review
‘Yash Chopra’ is back and is out to prove that he is the ‘King of Romance’. He is back after a long gap (he last wore the directors cap in 1997 when he directed ‘Dil to Pagal Hai’) of seven years. Yash Raj films are liked by almost everyone in India and ‘Veer Zara’ sticks to the Yash Raj tradition. There is drama; there is overdose of emotions, romance and lots of songs. What is missing is picturesque Switzerland but when we have sadda Kashmir who needs foreign locales.

‘Veer Zara’ starts in the Kashmir valley but don’t start deducing conclusions. Veer Zara is not ‘Gadar’ nor is it ‘Heena’. So if you want to see Shah Rukh bashing entire Pakistan army you would be disappointed. There are no inflammatory dialogues, no opposition to marriage of Hindu guy with a Muslim girl. Rather the movie is a major step forward from media and Bollywood in particular towards Indo-Pak friendship. When have you seen a crooked Pakistan jailor praising an Indian prisoner in court?

Veer-Zara is an immortal love story beautifully narrated on the lines of Heer-Ranjha, Laila-Majnu and the likes. It tells the story of Squadron leader Veer Pratap Singh (Shah Rukh Khan) and Zara Hayat Khan (Preity Zinta) that spans 22 years. Veer Pratap Singh used to be a rescue pilot with the Indian Air Force. He is a type of person who loves life and is always out to help others. One fine day Shah Rukh Khan meets this stranded girl Zara, the daughter of an influential Pakistani politician (Boman Irani), a carefree, sprightly girl who has come to India to fulfill her bibi’s (Zohra Sehgal) dying wish. The bus she is traveling in meets with an accident and Veer Pratap saves her life. This one meet soon develops into friendship and slowly fall in love.

Veer also takes this opportunity to show Zara the place where he grew up (Punjab). His uncle (Amitabh Bachchan) and aunt (Hema Malini), who have raised Veer (he’s an orphan), also develop a strong liking for Zara.

As Veer accompanies Zara to Atari Railway station to drop her to Pakistan, he is urged by Sumer Singh to express his love to Zara. But it is then that Veer realizes that Zara 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 Zara and tells her that he would give up his life for her anytime.

While in Lahore, Zara finds it difficult to forget Veer. Her maid Shabbo (Divya Dutta) calls Veer in India and explains the situation.

Veer gives up his job and arrives in Lahore. He meets Zara in the presence of her family and prospective in-laws. Raza still agrees to marry her for his political future if Zara is ready to forget Veer. Mariam (Kiron Kher) 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.

Twenty two years have passed and Veer is still languishing in the Pakistani prison. He has not uttered a single word to save the honor of Zara’s and her family. But maybe there is still chance as Saamiya Siddiqui (Rani Mukherjee), a Pakistani lawyer, comes to his rescue. She meets an ageing Veer Pratap Singh for the first time and decides to get to the bottom of this case. She is the only ray of hope for Veer and Zara and she stands tall against all odds including the cruel prosecution lawyer (Anupam Kher).

Veer-Zara is not the best effort from the versatile director Yash Chopra, but it’s different even though it treads the same age old formula of lovers separated by destiny. The movie though drags a tad too much in the first half. The part where Veer takes Zara to his village could be trimmed a little bit.

Even tough every actor/actress is brilliant in his/her role brilliantly Rani Mukherjee again manages to get herself noticed. She isn’t the lead actress nor has she got any songs, her role is highly de-glamorized but she does whatever she is supposed to brilliantly. Shah Rukh has been quoted as saying that after doing so many romantic movies he almost sleepwalks through them. And it shows. He underplays himself most of the time. His acting is brilliant and he occasionally brilliantly transforms himself from a 20 something air force pilot into a 50 year old prisoner (the constantly ventures into flashback and present). Preity looks good like all Yash Raj heroines and her acting is commendable. Weather she plays the carefree teenage girl or a girl madly in love, weather she is the responsible daughter or a girl torn between love and responsibilities she is believable in every shade her character goes through.

Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini are superb as the doting Punjabi-Madrasan couple. Amitabh as the young at heart village elder collects the maximum claps from the viewers. Manoj Bajpai gets minimal leverage, but he is fantastic in the scene when he confronts SRK while he is being interrogated.

Kiron Kher is outstanding yet again and Divya Dutta is simply amazing. Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Zohra Segal and Akhilendra Mishra give commendable performances.

The overall picture looks rosy and encouraging. Yash Chopra’s film would be liked by the one and all. Veer Zara has it all to make it a blockbuster and smash all box office records.