Hum toh bhai jaise hain...(Veer Zaara - Movie Review)
'Times change, people don't', quoted one naive philosopher who didn't know that the King of Romance, Yash Chopra, is going to take his comment a bit too seriuosly and end up making a fun of his earlier productions in his self-styled magnum opus 'Veer Zaara'. The latest 'Love Story' replete with trademark Shaadi and Punjabi festival sequences starts on an interesting premise - that of an Indian National rotting in a Pakistani Jail for last 22 years and a Pakistani lawyer attempting to break his silence to help him let free - but as soon as the tale moves to the illogical (Squadron leader flying a chopper and rescuing accident victims, Showing Himalayas and rope-bridges in Punjab!) and oft seen locales of a Punjab village, the asses start moving in the cinema-hall chair and not for the good.
Then suddenly, as if being directed by some deja-vu-esque instructions, the movie starts looking like a sad-spoof of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, with Zaara's Rain drenched opening song ('Hum Toh Bhai Jaise Hain, waise rahenge'/'Mere Khwaabon mein jo aaye'), an accidental meet with Veer (remember SRK pulling Kajol inside the train at London station!), a trip down the countryside with both falling in love (snow-capped Punjab/snowcapped Europe), entry of Zaara's fiance (a saturnine Manoj Bajpai!), Zara's tears in front of her Mom, and so on.....! In the middle of all this, we have a super-cameo by omnipresent Amitabh Bacchhan and still-young Hema Malini, and frankly speaking - this is the only part of the film where one sees that 'magical' Yash Chopra touch. But alas, this doesn't connect with the main story at all and nobody except Zaara Hayaat Khan thinks of visiting the stereo-typical Punjab village again...!
The court-room portion is also blurted out of proportion with a useless conflict set-up between Anupam Kher and Rani Mukherjee's characters. The only saving grace in the film is Shahrukh's performance which is amazingly controlled, especially in his older version, and will work wonders for his critics (who will be tightlipped after a long time!). Madan-Mohan's music absolutely befits his reputation and songs like 'Do Pal Ruka', and 'Tere Liye' bear a stamp of genius. Interestingly, this is the first time Yash Chopra has worked with Madan-Mohan tunes! (Earlier it was N.Dutta in 'Dhool Ka Phool', Ravi in 'Waqt', L-P in 'Daag', Shiv-Hari from 'Silsila' to 'Chandni', Jatin-Lalit in 'Darr' and Uttam Singh in 'Dil to pagal hai'). Another interesting co-incidence is the releasing of Madan-Mohan and Naushad films on the same day in the year 2004, almost 40 years after they were in their prime. (Mughal-E-Azam re-released along with Veer-Zaara!)
Strange, unpredictable, enjoyable and as we saw in Veer-Zaara, sometimes painful, is our film industry. Hope Yash Jee's next film would be a more balanced and 'with-the-times' effort and self-indulgence will take a more constructive meaning...! Till then, we can do with the re-runs of Darr, Dil To Pagal Hai and Chandni...
Then suddenly, as if being directed by some deja-vu-esque instructions, the movie starts looking like a sad-spoof of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, with Zaara's Rain drenched opening song ('Hum Toh Bhai Jaise Hain, waise rahenge'/'Mere Khwaabon mein jo aaye'), an accidental meet with Veer (remember SRK pulling Kajol inside the train at London station!), a trip down the countryside with both falling in love (snow-capped Punjab/snowcapped Europe), entry of Zaara's fiance (a saturnine Manoj Bajpai!), Zara's tears in front of her Mom, and so on.....! In the middle of all this, we have a super-cameo by omnipresent Amitabh Bacchhan and still-young Hema Malini, and frankly speaking - this is the only part of the film where one sees that 'magical' Yash Chopra touch. But alas, this doesn't connect with the main story at all and nobody except Zaara Hayaat Khan thinks of visiting the stereo-typical Punjab village again...!
The court-room portion is also blurted out of proportion with a useless conflict set-up between Anupam Kher and Rani Mukherjee's characters. The only saving grace in the film is Shahrukh's performance which is amazingly controlled, especially in his older version, and will work wonders for his critics (who will be tightlipped after a long time!). Madan-Mohan's music absolutely befits his reputation and songs like 'Do Pal Ruka', and 'Tere Liye' bear a stamp of genius. Interestingly, this is the first time Yash Chopra has worked with Madan-Mohan tunes! (Earlier it was N.Dutta in 'Dhool Ka Phool', Ravi in 'Waqt', L-P in 'Daag', Shiv-Hari from 'Silsila' to 'Chandni', Jatin-Lalit in 'Darr' and Uttam Singh in 'Dil to pagal hai'). Another interesting co-incidence is the releasing of Madan-Mohan and Naushad films on the same day in the year 2004, almost 40 years after they were in their prime. (Mughal-E-Azam re-released along with Veer-Zaara!)
Strange, unpredictable, enjoyable and as we saw in Veer-Zaara, sometimes painful, is our film industry. Hope Yash Jee's next film would be a more balanced and 'with-the-times' effort and self-indulgence will take a more constructive meaning...! Till then, we can do with the re-runs of Darr, Dil To Pagal Hai and Chandni...
posted by Varun at 5:11 AM
0 comments
