Veer-Zaara (2004)

Veer-Zaara Movie Trailer 2004

Crew

Directed by     Yash Chopra
Produced by     Yash Chopra ,Aditya Chopra
Screenplay by     Aditya Chopra
Story by     Aditya Chopra
Narrated by     Shahrukh Khan
Music by     Madan Mohan ,Sanjeev Kohli
Cinematography     Anil Mehta
Editing by     Ritesh Soni
Distributed by     Yash Raj Films

Cast

    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 Kaur (Special Appearance)
    Divya Dutta as Shabbo
    Akhilendra Mishra as a Pakistani jailor
    Kirron Kher as Maryam Hayat Khan
    Boman Irani as Jehangir Hayat Khan
    Anupam Kher as Zakir Ahmed
    Zohra Sehgal as Bebe
    Tom Alter as a Doctor
    Gurdas Mann as Special Appearance in song 'Aisa Des Hai Mera'

Stroy

Most of the story is revealed as a flashback from the 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 Lodi festival and meet Veer's uncle Choudhary Sumer Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) and aunt Saraswati Kaur (Hema Malini). With his uncle 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 boards the train, Veer confesses his love to Zaara. He 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. She initially tells her mother of an Indian man who is ready to give his life for her and for whom she has fallen for. Soon Zaara starts to see Veer everywhere and finally tells Shabbo (Divya Dutta), her maid and friend, that she has fallen in love with him. Shabbo calls Veer and tells him how miserable Zaara is without him. She asks 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 uncle and aunt. She had 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 say goodbye to Saamiya and Pakistan at the Wagah border crossing, returning to their village together.

Did you know?

1. The character of Saamiya Siddiqui is based on Pakistani human rights activist and well-known lawyer Asma Jehangir.
2. Amitabh Bachchan suggested Gurdas Mann to Yash Chopra, believing that Mann's voice would best suit the "Lodi" song.
3. Yash Chopra had approached every music director to score the film, but couldn't find what he thought was the appropriate music for the film. His specific requirement was "old-world music," away from Western influences and having a strong melody line, with acoustic instruments. Madan Mohan's son, Sanjeev Kohli (also the CEO of Yash Raj Films), suggested some of his father's compositions. Out of the hundreds of tunes in Mohan's archives, 35 were tested to see if they would fit the mood of the film and eleven were selected by Aditya Chopra.
4. The film was originally going to be called "Yeh Kahaan Aa Gaye Hum", named after the song from Silsila, but Yash Chopra felt that "Veer-Zaara" went better with the epic mood of the film. However, a song in the film twisted the title and became "Yeh Hum Aa Gaye Hai Kahaan".
5. There was no bus service between Amritsar and Lahore. However, recently there have been demands and plans from both sides of the border for such a bus service, and on 11 December 2005, a year and a month after the movie released, the service was given a trial run. A success, the service commenced on 20th January 2006.
6. The role of Saamiya Siddiqui was originally intended for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, but it didn't work out.
7. Anupam Kher stars with his wife Kiron Kher in this film, although they don't share the same frame.
8. Hrithik Roshan's favourite film, as stated in the DVD's bonus features.
9. Veer's prisoner number is 786, which Saamiya sees as a good omen. According to the Arabic language system, which assigns numerical values to each letter, the number 786 is the numerical value of the phrase "Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim" ("In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful"), the first verse in the Qur'an.
10. Karan Johar designed all of Shah Rukh Khan's costumes.
11. The prison scenes were all shot in one day. Shah Rukh Khan had to wear a wig to portray the aged Veer in those scenes.
12. The song "Aisa Des Hai Mera" holds a musical segment taken from "Yeh Desh Hai Veer Jawaano Ka," a song from Naya Daur. A then-young Yash Chopra had served on that film as assistant director to his brother, director B.R. Chopra.
13. Yash Chopra cast Preity Zinta because she was known to portray tomboys and Westernized girls, and he wanted someone who could easily transform into a character who was the complete opposite.
14. Director of photography Anil Mehta slipped a sepia tint into the film to give it a "golden oldies" mood, and to convey the feeling of nostalgia and memories in the film. This kind of cinematography was later copied by other filmmakers.
15. Maati (Hema Malini) affectionately addresses Veer as Veeru. Hema Malini had acted in Sholay alongside her husband Dharmendra, who played a character named Veeru.