Veer-Zaara
File:Veerzaara.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Yash Chopra
Produced by	Aditya Chopra Yash Chopra
Screenplay by	Aditya Chopra
Story by	Aditya Chopra
Narrated by	Shahrukh Khan
Starring	Shahrukh Khan Preity Zinta Rani Mukerji Manoj Bajpai
Music by	Madan Mohan Sanjeev Kohli
Cinematography	Anil Mehta
Editing by	Ritesh Soni
Distributed by	Yash Raj Films
Release date(s)	November 12, 2004
Running time	192 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	25 crore (US$4.99 million)[1]
Box office	94.22 crore (US$18.8 million)[2]

Veer-Zaara is a 2004 Indian romantic drama film directed by Yash Chopra. The movie stars Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji in the leading roles, with Manoj Bajpai, 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 Squadron Leader Veer Pratap Singh, and a Pakistani woman hailing from a rich political family of Lahore, Zaara Haayat Khan, who are separated for over twenty years. Saamiya Siddiqui, a Pakistani lawyer, finds Veer in prison, and upon listening to his story, tries to get him freed.

Highly anticipated pre-release,^[3] 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. This film marked the return to directing for Yash Chopra after seven years, last directing the film Dil To Pagal Hai.

Plot[link]

Most of the story is revealed as a flashback from prison cell of Veer Pratap Singh.

The narrative begins by showing Zaara Haayat Khan (Preity Zinta), an independent, carefree, and sprightly young Pakistani girl travelling to India. She is on her way to India with the ashes of her Sikh 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 Kiratpur, and scatter them in the Sutlej 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 (Shahrukh Khan) 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 home village on the day of the Lohri festival and meet Veer's parents (Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini). With his father telling Veer that, in a dream he has seen Zaara becoming Veer's wife, Veer realizes he is falling in love with Zaara. Taking her to catch her train to Lahore, Veer is just waiting for the right time to tell Zaara about his feelings, but before he can do that they are met by Zaara's fiance, who has come looking for her, Raza (Manoj Bajpai). Just before she is to board the train, Veer confesses his love and then watches sadly as Zaara boards the train that will take her back to Pakistan. Veer gets no sense of Zaara's feelings, but as she is leaving he discovers he still has one of her silver anklets. She nods for him to keep it; both believe that this is the end of the road for their relationship and that they will probably never meet again.

On reaching Pakistan, Zaara realizes that she is having deep feelings of love for Veer, but that it is her duty to keep her family's honor and marry her fiancé, a wedding that will further her father's political career. But Zaara starts to see Veer's face everywhere and finally tells her mother that she has fallen in love with Veer. Zaara's maid and friend Shabbo calls Veer and tells him how miserable Zaara is without him, she dares him to come and take Zaara away. Veer who had told Zaara that he would give up his life for her, 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) is a high-profile politician whose reputation, and health, will be ruined if news gets out that his daughter is in love with an Indian. 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.

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. The Pakistani government has decided to review the cases of some Indians, but stacking the deck against Siddiqui winning her first case, she has been given the case of prisoner 786 (Veer). Many view it as an impossible task as the man has been languishing in prison and has not spoken to anyone for the last 22 years. Also, the prosecution is led by Zakir Ahmed (Anupam Kher), her ex-boss who has never lost a case.

Veer opens up to Saamiya and tells her that she can fight his case but cannot mention, much less subpoena, Zaara's family. The number 786 is considered by some Muslims to be a holy number in Islam; this convinces Saamiya that God has chosen Veer for some special purpose, and she becomes even more determined to exonerate him, restore his name and identity, and return him to his country.

After the prosecution presents it case, Saamiya realizes she must cross the border and find someone in Veer's village who can prove Veer's true identity. There, Saamiya meets Zaara, who had fled to India and has taken over running the girl's school after the deaths of Veer's parents. She has thought that Veer died on his bus that ran off a cliff, killing everyone on its way to India. Saamiya takes Zaara back to Pakistan to tell the court 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 bid goodbye to Saamiya and Pakistan at the Wagah border crossing, returning to their village together.

Cast[link]

• Shahrukh Khan as Veer Pratap Singh
• Preity Zinta as Zaara Hayat Khan
• Rani Mukerji as Saamiya Siddiqui
• Manoj Bajpai as Raza Sharazi
• Amitabh Bachchan as Choudhary Sumer Singh {Special Appearance}
• Hema Malini as Saraswati Singh {Special Appearance}
• Divya Dutta as Shabbo
• Akhilendra Mishra as a Pakistani jailor
• Kirron Kher as Mrs. Jehangir Khan
• Boman Irani as Jehangir Khan (Zaara's father & Pakistani politician)
• Anupam Kher as Zakir Ahmed (Lawyer)
• Zohra Sehgal as Bebe (Zaara's surrogate Sikh mother)
• Tom Alter as a Doctor
• Gurdas Mann as Special Appearance in song 'Aisa Des Hai Mera'

Music[link]

The soundtrack of Veer-Zaara was released on CD and specially on Audio DVD. The music is based on old and untouched compositions by the late Madan Mohan, as revised by his son Sanjeev Kohli.

Yash Raj Music also released complete background music of Veer-Zaara, this being a rarity. The CD was titled The Love Legend Themes - Instrumental.

The famous playback singer Lata Mangeshkar sang most of the songs. She used to sing with Madan Mohan, so there was a special poignancy to her contributions. According to Yash Chopra, upon coming for the recording, with tears in her eyes, Lata Mangeshkar told him, "Madan Mohan was like my brother. You [Chopra] are like my brother. I feel I have gone back in past".^[3] Other singers like Jagjit Singh, Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, Gurdas Mann, Roop Kumar Rathod, Ahmed Hussain, Mohhamad Hussain and Pritha Mazumder also appear in the soundtrack. The album was the best selling Bollywood soundtrack of the year.^[4]

List of tracks[link]

Production[link]

Yash Chopra returned to directing after seven years, his last directed film being Dil To Pagal Hai (1997). The film was originally going to be called Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum, a name taken from the title of a song in the movie Silsila (1981). The director, Yash Chopra, eventually decided on Veer-Zaara as a title. However, one of the songs in the film is called "Yeh Hum Aa Gaye Hain Kahan", a twist on the proposed title.

Release and reception[link]

Veer-Zaara was heavily promoted pre-release.^[5] The film music, released before the actual cinematic release, went on to do very well at the charts,^[6] as was the movie. The movie opened in theatres on 12 November 2004. It grossed Rs. 410 million, the highest grossing movie of the year in India.^[7] In its first week it grossed Rs. 170 million, an opening week record which was held until 2005.^[8]

The film was a success not only in India and Pakistan, but overseas, notably in United Kingdom, Germany, France, South Africa, Canada and the United States. It earned Rs. 357 million in the overseas markets, making it 2004's top-grossing Bollywood production overseas and was declared an all time blockbuster.^[9] When the three leading actors of the film, Shahrukh, Preity and Rani, visited the Virgin Megastore in the UK, over 5,000 fans thronged the store. Apart from that, it was screened at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was received well.^[10] In February 2005, it was featured in the issue of the National Geographic Magazine in an article about Bollywood.^[11] On 26 April 2006, Veer-Zaara had its French premiere at The Grand Rex, the biggest theatre in Paris. It is the first Hindi film to premiere in such a large and luxe venue.^[12] In September 2007, a book based on the making of the film, titled They said it, was released. The book contains testimonials from members of the film’s cast and crew and follows the production stages of the film.^[13]

Awards[link]

Filmfare Awards[link]

Veer-Zaara received fifteen Filmfare nominations. It won awards for best dialogue, story, movie and lyrics. The film was nominated for the following awards (Filmfare wins in bold, Filmfare nominations in normal font. Other sections provide only the winning list):

• Best Movie
• Best Director - Yash Chopra
• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan
• Best Actress - Preity Zinta
• Best Supporting Actor - Amitabh Bachchan
• Best Supporting Actress - Rani Mukerji
• Best Supporting Actress - Divya Dutta
• Best Dialogue - Aditya Chopra
• Best Story - Aditya Chopra
• Best Lyricist - Javed Akhtar for "Tere Liye"
• Best Lyricist - Javed Akhtar for "Main Yahaan"
• Best Lyricist - Javed Akhtar for "Aisa Des Hai Mera"
• Best Music Director - Madan Mohan
• Best Male Playback - Sonu Nigam for "Do Pal"
• Best Male Playback - Udit Narayan for "Main Yahaan Hoon"

IIFA Awards[link]

• Best Picture
• Best Director - Yash Chopra
• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan
• Best Supporting Actress - Rani Mukerji
• Best Music Director - The Late Madan Mohan
• Best Story- Aditya Chopra

National Film Awards[link]

• Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment

Stardust Awards[link]

• Star of the Year - Female - Preity Zinta
• Stardust Best Supporting Actress Award - Kirron Kher

Star Screen Awards[link]

• Best Film
• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan
• Best Dialogue - Aditya Chopra
• Best Story - Aditya Chopra
• Jodi No.1 - Shah Rukh Khan & Preity Zinta

Zee Cine Awards[link]

• Best Film - Yash Chopra & Aditya Chopra (Producers)
• Best Director - Yash Chopra
• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan
• Best Supporting Actress - Divya Dutta

Bollywood Movie Awards[link]

• Best Film - Yash Chopra & Aditya Chopra
• Best Director - Yash Chopra
• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan
• Best Music - Late Madan Mohan
• Best Lyrics - Javed Akhtar - (Tere Liye...)

Global Indian Film Awards[link]

• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan
• Best Supporting Actress - Divya Dutta
• Best Story - Aditya Chopra

DVD release[link]

On 6 June 2005 the Yash Raj Films released the DVD of Veer-Zaara on a Collector's Double DVD Pack, with the disc one containing the original film and second disc having special features, e.g. making of the songs (with little original melodies), interview with Yash Chopra, premier, deleted scenes, trailers and promo and deleted song "Yeh Hum Aa Gaye Hain Kahan".

Disc 1 (the film) has one audio track in Hindi, and eleven subtitle tracks for English, Spanish, Dutch, Hebrew, Arabic, Gujarati, Tamil, and Malayalam.

In December 2009, the movie was released onto Blu-ray.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Veer-Zaara at the Internet Movie Database
• Veer-Zaara's Official Site

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