Review of Veer-Zaara (2004) by Ulka A — 08 Nov 2018

Veer Zaara is an epic love story set in the contemporary context of the continuing enmity between India and Pakistan. It stars three famous actors, Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta, and Rani Mukherjee, along with Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini in supporting roles. The film begins with Veer in a jail cell in Lahore, known only as Prisoner 786. He has been in jail for 22 years and in the first half of the film we learn why. He fell in love with Zaara, a Pakistani woman, during a trip to India she made to immerse the ashes of her Sikh nanny. Veer followed Zaara back to Pakistan, but was arrested on a trumped-up charge of being a spy.

This is the film's framing, but most of it is a love story that talks about the power of true love. The songs are romantic and intense, showing the kind of love that overpowers the individual, almost like a haunting. It also shows the importance of thinking of community --here Punjabiness-- across national borders. The dialogue, the songs and the imagery are all invested in thinking about Punjabiness beyond the India-Pakistan boundary. As Saba Bhaumik writes, although war films are not very common in Bollywood, recent films especially during the Kargil War in 1999 tended to vilify Pakistan (Bhaumik, "Politics of Indian War Films"). Veer Zaara, along with Main Hoon Na, also released the same year, take a different path.

This is an epic romance similar to Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, which also shows a self-destructive love that overpowers the two lovers to such an extent that you wonder whether they can have a future. It is also similar to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which also stars Shah Rukh Khan, and talks about the kind of love that is worth waiting for. DDLJ also has an idealized image of Punjab, but in that film, it is Baldev's nostalgia image of Punjab that actually leads him to make the wrong decision for his daughter, whereas here the image of a lush and fertile Punjab inspires the audience to think about the commonality between people on both side of the border.