Independent Films, Film Profiles

Veer-Zaara
by Yash Chopra

Veer-Zaara (Hindi: वीर-ज़ारा, Urdu: ویر زارا) is a 2004 Indian Hindi film directed by Yash Chopra. The movie stars Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji in the leading roles, with Kirron Kher, Divya Dutta and Anupam Kher in supporting roles. Veteran actors Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini make special appearances in the film. The dialogues were written by Aditya Chopra.Set against the backdrop of conflict between India and Pakistan, this star-crossed romance follows the unfortunate love story of an Indian Air Force officer, Veer Pratap Singh, and a Pakistani woman, Zaara Haayat Khan, who are separated for about twenty years. The story deepens with the arrival of Saamiya Siddiqui, a Pakistani lawyer, who finds Veer in prison, and upon listening to their story, tries to bring the lovers together.Highly anticipated pre-release, the film eventually became the top-grossing Bollywood film of the year at both the Indian and the international box office, earning over Rs. 750 million worldwide, in addition to being showcased at numerous prominent film festivals around the world. The music of the film, based on old compositions by the late Madan Mohan with lyrics by Javed Akhtar, was also successful. Upon its theatrical release, Veer-Zaara received mostly positive reviews from critics. The film won several awards in major Indian film award ceremonies, including the Most Popular Film award at the National Film Awards and the Best Movie award at the annual Filmfare Awards, among others.Most of the story is revealed as a flashback from prison cell of Veer Pratap Singh (Shahrukh Khan).The narrative begins by showing Zaara Haayat Khan (Priety Zinta), an independent, carefree, and sprightly young Pakistani girl travelling to India. She is on her way to India with the ashes of her governess Bebe (a Punjabi word to denote mother or grandmother, but here used for Zaara's old governess). Before dying, Bebe (Zohra Sehgal) begs Zaara to fulfill her final wish - to take her ashes to India, to the holy Sikh city of Kiritpur, and scatter them in the river, among her ancestors. Zaara decides to carry out Bebe's dying wish.Upon reaching India, Zaara's bus meets with an accident causing it to overturn. An Indian Air Force pilot, Squadron Leader Veer Pratap Singh comes to her rescue and with his help, Zaara completes Bebe's final rites. Veer convinces Zaara to return with him to his village to spend one day together. Zaara agrees and Veer takes her on a tour of India's Punjab. They visit Veer's hometown during the Lodi festival and meet Veer's parents (Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini). Veer and Zaara fall in love and Veer is just waiting for the right time to tell Zaara about his feelings for her when it is revealed that Zaara is engaged to another man, Raza (Manoj Bajpai). During their last few moments together, Veer confesses his love and then watches sadly as Zaara boards the train that will take her back to Pakistan. Both believe that this is the end of the road for their relationship and have no hope of meeting again.On reaching Pakistan, Zaara realizes that she loves Veer and cannot marry her fiancé; Veer, after being told over the phone by Zaara's friend Shabbo, about how miserable Zaara is without him, quits the Indian Air Force and goes to Pakistan to bring her back with him to India. Zaara's mother, Mariam Hayaat Khan (Kirron Kher), however, begs him to leave Zaara as Zaara's father, Jahangir Hayaat Khan (Boman Irani) who is a high-profile politician whose reputation will be ruined if news got out that his daughter is in love with a Hindu. Veer respects this request and decides to leave for India but Raza, who is outraged by the shame Zaara has brought upon him, frames Veer and has him wrongly imprisoned on charges of being an Indian spy Rajesh Rathore.The story moves forward by 22 years and Veer now meets Saamiya Siddiqui (Rani Mukerji), who is an idealistic Pakistani lawyer, whose mission in life is to pave the path for women's empowerment in Pakistan. To dissuade a female lawyer from being successful, she has been given Veer's case to defend in court. Many view it as an impossible task as the man has been languishing in prison and has not spoken for the last 22 years.Veer opens up to Saamiya and tells her that she can do anything for fighting his case except mention, much less subpoena, Zaara's family. He is assigned the number 786 (considered to be a holy number in Islam) for his prisoner number. This convinces Saamiya that God has chosen Veer for some special purpose, and determined to exonerate him, and restore his name, identity and return him to his country.After a number of attempts which fail to prove Veer's innocence, Saamiya goes to Veer's village in India to gather evidence proving Veer's true identity. There, Saamiya meets Zaara- who had fled to India and has taken charge in the village for Veer's parents for many years now. Saamiya convinces Zaara to go back to Pakistan with her and finally tell the truth about Veer's identity. The judge releases Veer from prison and apologizes on behalf of Pakistan. After Veer is finally released, he and Zaara return to India together, at last reunited.