Some people are really lucky that they always receive applause aplenty even on their mediocre work, or excellent response on their just good output. It is the case with Yash Raj and Shah Rukh Khan (a copy cat of dilip kumar till sene connery and from Robert de nero till Amitabh Bachchan).
I am not at all biased but I love yash?s films even I praised his last flick dil to pagal hai despite of the fact that people called it a plastic film, but I immensely liked dtph because it was the Yash?s speciality and str8 from his heart and according to his aptitude and capabilities of handling these kinda candy floss goody good subjects with magical direction and treatment.
But after watching VEER-ZARA (doesn?t it sounds like HEER-RANJHA which was also a love legend) I am bitterly disappointed not only that the movie was not up to the expectations but also a very good and genuine script is wasted by a director who belongs to entirely different school of thought and of other generation of films, this script was just for the genius SHYAM BENEGAL who can inject life with its full minute details and all colors and shades. But Yash chopra just made a half hearted attempt which looks immature, unconvincing, and mostly lifeless and clichéd.
First of all I dont wanna talk about the story or music as enough has been said about this.
Despite of the lifeless direction and halfhearted treatment of a superb script I wanna mention some other things also.
I am from Pakistan and I know Pakistani culture as I born in Pakistan and till now a pure Pakistani and also I have travelled throughout all Pakistan. Ifeel It very funny every time whenever I watch an Indian film in which they present Pakistanis who says ?Adaab? by taking their hands to their forehead. My God, in which era Indians are living.
Adaab has been obsoleted centuries ago, it was used in Mughal?s rule period and in old traditions? cities like Lakhnau etc, I have never ever seen any Pakistani whether from old or new generation who says adaab but in VEER ZARA they showed even police officers doing this and it just looked like a terrible joke on screen. Yash Ji Adaab might be used 2 or 3 centuries ago in highly old traditions cities or urdu speaking cities but is totally a strange thing for any Pakistani, it might be used in urdu speaking city like Karachi in old centuries but not even in it in today?s modern age.
Specially in a Punjabi based city LAHORE which you have shown on screen this ADAAB is totally out of culture even in the old times, also the strictly Urdu feminine words like Uffah Allah, Hai Allah are past stories that were been used in Mirza Ghalib?s age but not today at all. We Pakistanies are equally modern like Indians as far as spoiling of the language :) is concerned J as we also use slang, English words and mod-urdu despite of the Mirza Ghalib?s age Urdu and adaab shadaab that u show from the mouth of Pakistanis and they just sound like a joke.
Also Rani?s character does not looklike a Pakistani. The very first dialogue from her mouth was itself wrong as she speak ? kha waab? to ? khuwaab? because Indians speaks the urdu alphabet ?khhh? as ? kaahh? .. so that was the basic mistake .. also she said ?galat? to ?ghalat? which was wrong Indians speaks like this but not Pakistanis and also many other Pakistani accent mistakes are their from Rani?s mouth.
Preity doesn?t look like a Pakistani girl, wearing a nose pin doesn?t means that she can give a Pakistani girl?s look, her features are too western and unusual. Also Rani was totally unsuitable for that character. Shabana Azmi was best choice for a Pakistani Lawyer or even Tabu could play that role with a lot more confidence, mature and believable way.
Even taking two Pakistani heroines for main Pakistani leading ladies could be a very very novel idea not only for the betterment of the characters but also for charm, uniqueness and betterment of Indo-Pak relation on which this film was based. I think Resham (u have seen her with SRK in zee cine awards this year announcing awards) could be a best choice for Preity?s role , and MEERA (working in Mahesh bahtt?s film Nazar) would be an ideal actress for Rani?s role. Both are excellent actresses and Pakistani and they best fit for these characters, but why I am complaining about suitable actresses even when the director is not suitable to handle this mature script (Shyam Benegal was best choice for this film).
Amitabh-Hema roles were sweet but didn?t we seen these sugar coated roles, these festivals, these bhangras countless times that now they getting on the nerves instead of entertaining.
Sets were also not that supreme especially the sets used in QAWWALI were too raw and looked like a rush job.
In short this film is strictly ok and is getting that much business just because of the goodwill, hype and good luck of Yash and of SRK. If you will miss this you will miss nothing. Go for Naach a fantastic flick and miles ahead from VEER-ZARA.