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dangermousieMy favorite Bollywood movie in 2004 (and probably my favorite movie that year, period) was the Yash Chopra blockbuster Veer-Zaara. I saw it three or four times in the movie theater, and when you consider that the drive each way was about an hour and the movie itself is 3+ hours long, you can easily tell how much I loved it.
In brief, the movie is a tragic (or is it?) love story between an Indian Air Force pilot (played by my favorite bar none Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan) and a Pakistani aristocrat (played by the ever popular Preity Zinta). It's a love story, and a court drama, and even a bit of a mystery. The biggest chunk of the story is told in flashback. When the movie opens, the protagonist Veer Pratap Singh is a wreck of a man, held prisoner in a Pakistani jail. He hasn't even spoken to anyone for years. Saamiya Saddiqqi (played by Rani Mukerji in a very atypical role) is a lawyer for the Human Rights Commission. She is a feminist, determined to make her way in the very male-dominated society and Veer (whose case has come come for reconsideration under some new legal provisions) is her first case. Maybe she can obtain his freedom, but most likely not: he doesn't even open his mouth, and she is assigned the case so she would lose. But of course, she does get him to talk, and as he haltingly tells his story to Saamiya, the main story unfolds in glorious swirls of color and passion and energy.
In the 1980s, Veer, a pilot engaged in rescue operations, meets Zaara when she comes across the border to dispose of the ashes of her nanny according to her wishes. They travel together and they fall in love. To say more would be really to spoil it. Nobody can tell a star-crossed, angsty love story the way Bollywood can. Maybe because in a modern Western society, how do you make love truly star-crossed and impossible? Most things are accepted. But not so in the milleau of the story (when I tell you that I was convinced for a huge chunk of the movie that Zaara was honor-killed, you realize that this is a different world). Veer and Zaara are doomed, doomed, doomed by everything outside their control. Not only is she already engaged, and it's a political alliance of great importance to her family. But he is Indian (military, no less) and she is Pakistani at the time the tensions between the countries were huge (to even go to Pakistan he'd have to resign his commission). She is Muslim and he is Sikh in a society that is not keen on inter-religious marriage. She is a high-class aristocrat and he? His family runs a village, and while they are well off, they are quite in another class socially. And yet, I ended up rooting for them like mad, despite any understanding of just how hard it would be for them to have a happy ending (as to whether they do or not, I am not saying).
My expectations on going to see it were low. It was directed by Yash Chopra, whose last movie came out in 1997 (Dil To Pagal Hai) and was as insipid as it was popular. Aditya Chopra of DDLJ scripted Veer-Zaara, but then he also scripted DTPH. And I adore Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta, but in the one movie where I've seen them play a romantic couple (Kal Ho Na Ho), while the movie was excellent, their chemistry did not burn up the screen. Boy was I wrong about Veer-Zaara. From the first sounds and the shock of colors I knew I was going to love it. It's clever, progressive, romantic, and the chemistry between the leads? So hot it's scorching. I was drawn away into that world (and boy, it's not pretty when you have hysterics in the theater. Luckily, others were crying as well, including men) and never wanted to emerge for air.
It reminds me of those grand old classic Hollywood romances, only shot with about twice as much passion and longing and beauty.
Unhappy:
Mmmm:
One of my favorite scenes:
Awwww:
Angst:
More Angst:
Yet More Angst:
And even more:
Heeee:
Making out:
(The above were from Mai's V-Z page).
Tragic Lovers:
With the sexy:
Zaara:
Running through the fields:
Having fun:
Being rescued:
Exercise!
Veer and Saamiya:
More Veer and Saamiya:
In brief, the movie is a tragic (or is it?) love story between an Indian Air Force pilot (played by my favorite bar none Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan) and a Pakistani aristocrat (played by the ever popular Preity Zinta). It's a love story, and a court drama, and even a bit of a mystery. The biggest chunk of the story is told in flashback. When the movie opens, the protagonist Veer Pratap Singh is a wreck of a man, held prisoner in a Pakistani jail. He hasn't even spoken to anyone for years. Saamiya Saddiqqi (played by Rani Mukerji in a very atypical role) is a lawyer for the Human Rights Commission. She is a feminist, determined to make her way in the very male-dominated society and Veer (whose case has come come for reconsideration under some new legal provisions) is her first case. Maybe she can obtain his freedom, but most likely not: he doesn't even open his mouth, and she is assigned the case so she would lose. But of course, she does get him to talk, and as he haltingly tells his story to Saamiya, the main story unfolds in glorious swirls of color and passion and energy.
In the 1980s, Veer, a pilot engaged in rescue operations, meets Zaara when she comes across the border to dispose of the ashes of her nanny according to her wishes. They travel together and they fall in love. To say more would be really to spoil it. Nobody can tell a star-crossed, angsty love story the way Bollywood can. Maybe because in a modern Western society, how do you make love truly star-crossed and impossible? Most things are accepted. But not so in the milleau of the story (when I tell you that I was convinced for a huge chunk of the movie that Zaara was honor-killed, you realize that this is a different world). Veer and Zaara are doomed, doomed, doomed by everything outside their control. Not only is she already engaged, and it's a political alliance of great importance to her family. But he is Indian (military, no less) and she is Pakistani at the time the tensions between the countries were huge (to even go to Pakistan he'd have to resign his commission). She is Muslim and he is Sikh in a society that is not keen on inter-religious marriage. She is a high-class aristocrat and he? His family runs a village, and while they are well off, they are quite in another class socially. And yet, I ended up rooting for them like mad, despite any understanding of just how hard it would be for them to have a happy ending (as to whether they do or not, I am not saying).
My expectations on going to see it were low. It was directed by Yash Chopra, whose last movie came out in 1997 (Dil To Pagal Hai) and was as insipid as it was popular. Aditya Chopra of DDLJ scripted Veer-Zaara, but then he also scripted DTPH. And I adore Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta, but in the one movie where I've seen them play a romantic couple (Kal Ho Na Ho), while the movie was excellent, their chemistry did not burn up the screen. Boy was I wrong about Veer-Zaara. From the first sounds and the shock of colors I knew I was going to love it. It's clever, progressive, romantic, and the chemistry between the leads? So hot it's scorching. I was drawn away into that world (and boy, it's not pretty when you have hysterics in the theater. Luckily, others were crying as well, including men) and never wanted to emerge for air.
It reminds me of those grand old classic Hollywood romances, only shot with about twice as much passion and longing and beauty.
Unhappy:
Mmmm:
One of my favorite scenes:
Awwww:
Angst:
More Angst:
Yet More Angst:
And even more:
Heeee:
Making out:
(The above were from Mai's V-Z page).
Tragic Lovers:
With the sexy:
Zaara:
Running through the fields:
Having fun:
Being rescued:
Exercise!
Veer and Saamiya:
More Veer and Saamiya:
