Veer

I really liked the Salman Khan film "Veer", and actually was convinced the plot was quite original, until I learned as usual, it's yet another Bollywood version of an older English movie.

The 1962 "Taras Bulba", starring Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis, tells the same story (with less typical Hindi family drama of course) between the Cossacks and the Poles, taking place in the 16th century: "The Cossacks of Eastern Europe join the Poles to rid the Turks from the Steps of Europe. In return for their aid, the Poles agree to give control of the Steps to the Cossacks. After the battle, however, the Poles back out of their agreement and force the Cossacks into the hills. Taras Bulba, a Cossack Colonel, raises his son, Andrei Bulba to learn the ways of the Poles so he can one day defeat them in battle. In his learning process, however, Andrei falls in love with the daughter of a Polish Nobleman. This twist causes Andrei Bulba to choose between the love of the Cossacks, and the love of a woman, and causes Taras Bulba to choose between the love of his son, and the love of the Cossacks."

Veer is Salman Khans most ambitious project to date. No doubt about that, he has scripted the film, but that is exactly what the film suffers from, don't get me wrong, it isn't half bad for a man whos career lies is in acting. But its quite obvious that Salman viewed the Hollywood Epic "Troy" beforehand, most of the storyline is a rip off from it. 2 warring tribes? the heroine belonging to the enemy tribe? A fight between Veer and the heroines brother in which Veer wins? A tearful yet acceptable climax? All seems a bit too familiar to me.

Salman is very good in the film but he is looking his age, for the most part he does not have a six pack but more of a flab pack. Sohail Khan is ludicrous (in the bad sense), he tries hard to bring a sense of humour but fails miserably. Mithun pleasantly surprises, the fight between him and Salman is the highlight of the film. Jackie Shroff is bearable as is his on-screen daughter, the heroine and debutant, Zarine Khan.

However the film is in all honesty, too long, while being an adaptation of troy, it also has its own stroyline, but 2 and half hours is pushing it, the story could have been told in 2 hours max given the brief interlude from the songs (which are picturised very well).

The love story is a run-of-the-mill one, hero and heroine falls in love, then some melodrama (and in this case fighting and action), before a reunion, then an expected twist.

Action scenes, war scenes etc etc are underdone, the film is definitely an epic, but more in the bollywood "44 crore budget" sense, Veer lacks the granduer but Salman more than makes up for it.

Music is well used in the film, depicts the more grand style of times back then, but the party song, the name of which i cant remember is brilliant on screen. Cinematography is all in all very good.

Final Verdict: See it for Salman, but don't go expecting a huge bollywood epic, you'll be disappointed.

There were mixed reactions about "Veer" before its release, since it was a period drama dealing with the same old Rajput Kings, Britishers and their revolts. The subject had its own limitations, holding a restricted appeal for the viewers. But there was Salman Khan, on Veer's side, with a gigantic fan following, who were all eager to see their favourite star in a new avatar of a revolutionary fighter.

So, the stage was all set for Salman to once again win over the box office with his majestic project which also had few melodious songs to its credit. But after watching more than 160 minutes of this fictional period epic, sadly Salman Khan himself, Mithun Da and the few well composed songs, remain the only worth mentioning features of this costly affair called "Veer".

In few words, the movie which successfully manages to impress the viewers with its powerful content in the first half, fails miserably post intermission and becomes a great let down after its initial one hour. Revolving around a revolutionary tribe named "Pandari's" which existed in the period of 19th century, it talks about the same old father-son vengeance story, which also involves the angle of The Ruling Britishers and their relationships with the Rajput Kings.

Truly speaking, "Veer" starts off quite well, with an explosive & impactful opening sequence which right away forces every person in the theater to take it seriously. Justifying all the historical events happening on the screen with a voice over, the movie makes a successful start and the powerful scenes of Mithun Da & Salman Khan together raise the bar further. "Taali" the first song of the movie, also makes an impression. The song even reminded me of one similar dance sequence in the famous cult movie "Fiddler on the Roof".

In fact, the first half of "Veer" has some excellent scenes, both acted and directed brilliantly. Like the one against animal sacrifice in the name of Religion, the shot with the graphical representation of London in the 19th century, the University scene where Salman answers back to his racist professor and the punishment scene right after. But the real problem starts just before the intermission where Salman performs a lethal bloodshed killing several British soldiers along with the two Rajput brothers of the leading lady.

Actually all the liberties taken by the script writers, which have no logical explanations, start right after the intermission when suddenly you see both Salman & Sohail returning to India (just like that), after mercilessly killing so many people right in the University Grounds in front of all the students. From here on the film takes a negative 'U-turn' and with every new scene progressing on the screen, you start forgetting the excellent scenes witnessed in the first half. After the interval, the narration slows down majorly, as the love story takes the front seat. Moreover, the final moments of the movie are also not capable of awakening the patriotic emotions in the viewers as usually seen in the movies made around the subject of India and its Freedom.

Visually, "Veer" is grand, royal and well worked upon. Cinematography, Visual Effects and Art Direction have a stunning impact and play as another character in the story on the screen. Musically it's undoubtedly among the top 3 musical scores of the duo Sajid-Wajid and they have delivered some real soulful numbers such as "Sureeli Akhiyon Waley" & "Salaam Aaya". Gulzar once again comes up with some logically unexplainable but great deep meaningful words. Only the person who had written "Humne Dekhi Hai Un Ankhon Ki Mehakati Khushboo", could have written "Sureeli Akhiyon Waley". As expected, "Veer" completely belongs to Salman Khan and his dominant screen presence. He realistically lives the character of Veer and delivers a fine performance, but the period feel of the movie may disappoint lot of his young fans who love to see him dressed in cool denims and open shirts. After Salman its Mithun Da to watch out for, with his piercing eyes and strong dialogue delivery. Zarine Khan, no doubts resembles Katrina, but she still looks pretty, though a little overweight. She may be taken in for a specific purpose but manages to give an OK performance in the movie. Jackie Shroff has slightly done it over the top. Sohail Khan does the usual act similar to his previous flicks. Both Puru Raaj Kumar & Aryan Vaid don't get enough scope to make an impact but Neena Gupta shines in her few scenes. Interestingly there are no familiar faces in the actors playing the British Officers and they all do the usual stuff without making any great efforts. "Veer" also has its resemblances with "Taras Bulba" (1962) and "Kranti" (1981). Apart from a similar climax, it even has a half arm person in the form of Jackie Shroff just as there was Prem Chopra in "Kranti".

Anil Sharma, tries to revive the magic of "Gadar" with many similar kind of heroic sequences using the current He-man Salman, following the legacy of Dharmendra & Sunny Deol. But in absence of a logical script and a tight edit, he fails to connect with the audiences after few initial engrossing moments and thus could only deliver a half hearted project.

In the end, I would sincerely like to add, that "Veer" could have been a much better movie with a more realistically directed and written second half. It is clearly the fault of the script writer and the director that the movie which reasonably impresses you in the first half, works so negatively post intermission. As Salman has reportedly written the main story of the movie, I doubt whether this was exactly the tale he wanted to bring on the wide screen. Anyway, if you are a Salman Khan fan, then you are surely going to like it, especially before intermission. Otherwise the magnum epic satisfies the viewer only partially.

Five things about Veer are actually good, even very good: Jackie Shroff, Mithun Chakraborthy, the music, the visuals, and the basic idea. And that's about where it ends. I won't even start listing those things that are bad...

Apparently, Veer was meant to become The Salman Khan Movie To End All Salman Khan Movies. Salman himself is responsible for the story, which supposedly took him no less than twenty years. The result proves that whatever one may think about Sallu, story-writing is definitely Not His Thing. It should be said, the first 30 minutes of the movie are promising and evoke high expectations, but all the rest is just one big and rather tasteless ego-trip. To such a degree that you can't even say this movie is about Veer at all... no, it is about Salman: Salman dressed up as a Pindari, Salman dressed up as an English gentleman, Salman dressed up as a gladiator, Salman dressed up as Highlander, Salman dressed up as an Indian prince, and of course, Salman in his trademark outfit, his naked muscled chest. The story appears to be completely subordinated to Salman, his poses and his costumes.

The role of princess Yashodhara was obviously meant to be played by Salman's fiancée, but because Katrina had other obligations, he had to find replacement. And so he picked a débutante as his heroine, whose only asset appears to be a certain physical similarity to La Kaif. Mistake number 2, because "Zatrina" quite clearly lacks the talent, the acting skills and the charisma to pull off this one. Her screen presence irritates from the first to the last scene, even though the role wasn't a particularly challenging one anyway. In fact, the film would have been a lot better off without the whole obligatory love story, annoying even for Bollywood standards.

Watching this movie, I got the impression that Salman hoped to create his own "Jodhaa Akbar" or "The Rising". But all he managed was creating his own "Dharam Veer" - without Dharam to that! Manmohan Desai's "Dharam Veer" is at least funny and absurd, however, Salman's Veer is not funny at all. If he would at least have added some humor the Veer character, things might have turned out differently, because Salman happens to a good comedian from time to time. But instead, he left the comedy bits to his brother Sohail who, although not a bad actor himself, is notoriously bad at comedy. And thus, the movie that was supposed to showcase all Salman's abilities as an actor, turns out more successful at showcasing his limitations. The feeling that remains is that this movie deserved to become something much better than it actually became: a major disappointment.

Veer is no art-house flick and nor is it historically accurate. Its a historical drama with an entertainment capacity only. One cannot expect to watch this film and analyze it as being "poetry in motion" or groundbreaking.

Like most Salman Khan movies its a pure entertainer and quite paisa vasool in this regard. There are cringe worthy moments with the historical inaccuracies (would there really have been female "exchange students" in the era in question?)and following the interval the film loses some momentum. However whilst these flaws are present they are overshadowed by the stellar aspects of the film such as the impactful performances and melodious music.

Salman Khan is PHENOMENAL in and as Veer. During the course of the film one cannot separate him from Veer and never has he delivered such a consistent serious performance. His role is strong, powerful and intense which he meets all throughout the film, to the extent that one is able to overlook the films ludicrous historical inaccuracies.

Mithunda is another consistent and powerful performer in the film. He is a pleasure to watch and the audience will find themselves missing him in the portion of the film Veer is in England. All the other cast are strictly OK, understandable by the sheer strength and presence in the performances mentioned before. As far as Zarine Khan is concerned her role is undemanding,however her screen presence ought to be noted.

The films music alongside the awesome performances is another of it's assets. All the songs are beautiful and well placed in the film. Surprisingly none of the songs stick out like a sore thumb and really enhance the film.

What exactly happens post-interval is difficult to pinpoint, the plot slackens and it hits the viewer as it was preceded by the such an engrossing and speedy first half. However the film does quicken toward the end and the ending coupled with Salman and Mithunda's intensity and chemistry can almost make the viewer forget the preceding "shonkiness".

Veer is not the greatest film ever made, but it isn't the worst as one of its critics cited (comparing it to Tashan!). It is a mega entertainer, a great cinematic experience and perhaps one of Salman Khan's best performances.