Having sat through this amateurish wannabe epic, I'm 100% sure that her slight (but still obvious) resemblance to the 2nd most beautiful woman in Bollywood is the only reason she was chosen. Remember Unlucky: No Time to Make a Good Movie--sorry, Lucky: No Time for Love, whose heroine Sneha Ullal looked like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan? Same deal. If Zarine Khan's career has the same fate as Sneha Ullal's--well, does it make me a bad person if I hope for that?
Veer is directed by Anil Sharma (Gadar, Ab Tumhaare Hawaale Watan Saathiyo, Apne) and stars Salman Khan, Zarine Khan, Sohail Khan, Mithun Chakraborthy, Lisa Lazarus and Jackie Shroff. Music is by Sajid-Wajid.
Veer (Salman Khan) is the son of a Pindari chief (Mithunda) in northern India. He and his brother Punya (Sohail Khan) have been educated and sent to England in order to figure out a way to overthrow the British power in Madhavgar, a rival village whose king (Jackie Shroff) once betrayed the Pindaris. While there, Veer falls in love (unwittingly) with the princess of Madhavgar, Yashodhara (Zarine Khan).
Veer is to Jodhaa Akbar what Alexander is to Gladiator. That pretty much sums this movie up! While JA was intelligent, romantic, beautiful and relevant, Veer is mindless, saccharine, noisy and ineffective. During the battle sequences, when the swords clash together, you don't hear the majestic clang! that you heard in Jodhaa Akbar--you hear a screechy banshee howl that sounds like nails on a chalkboard or like when someone puts a microphone near a speaker. The costumes of JA were gorgeous and historically accurate. Here, everything looks relatively modern as if Sharma didn't understand that this was not the movie in which to showcase his heroine wearing the latest fashions.
You might think it unfair of me to compare Veer to Jodhaa Akbar, since JA is my 4th favorite Hindi film of all time and stars two of my favorite people. But the two movies fall under the same genre (the sword-and-sandals romantic epic) which is new to Bollywood.
The other difference between this film and JA is that Veer struggles with a modern execution of an ancient story. The characters act like they're in modern times and they speak like they're in modern times (Sohail, Zarine, Lisa Lazarus, mostly). The film tries to make this time period accessible to younger audiences but instead delivers an historically inaccurate mess.
The film has a few things going for it. It's always engaging; you're never bored. I don't think this is necessarily due to a high entertainment value. It's more because of its slightly rapid pace and a star performance from Salman Khan. He is so committed to the script and the character that you also believe in him. Even when he's forced to say things like "Once I grab onto a piece of flesh, I take 2 kilos of it" (who is he, Shylock the Jew?), he somehow makes it believable. This man is no great actor but he's charismatic and forces you to root for him to get the girl and kill the villains. He's the best thing about this production and he's the only thing keeping it from being utter garbage.
Zarine Khan is beautiful in the way a knockoff Coach/Gucci/Louis Vuitton bag is beautiful. She probably cost less (to hire) than the real thing and casual patrons won't even notice the difference. I mean, if Katrina Kaif were an actual human being (instead of a celestial being) than she would have looked like Zarine Khan. Zarine Khan lacks the screen presence required of her in this film. Her character has some meat and I can appreciate the effort but she doesn't quite pull it off. Also, and this is the worst offense, she cannot song-act.
Supporting cast is unbearable. Sohail, Jackie Shroff and Mithun are AWFUL. Lisa Lazarus is a very beautiful woman who looks positively radiant in her costumes. But her character is underwritten even though there could have been some good stuff there.
The mediocre soundtrack is easy on the ears. "Salaam Aaya", "Meherbaaniyan", and "Taali" are the best of the lot and have decent videos. "Surili Ankhiyon Waale" is a nice song but it's ruined by inane English lyrics and an awful video. "Kanha", Rekha Bharadwaj's beautiful bhajan, is ruined by the fact that they only play the opening music and cut it after one line of hers (which is awkwardly drowned out by a train screeching to a stop!). And when they do let it play, it comes at the worst time.
Overall, this is a movie that is watchable but it's not good by any means. It's a mess of a film that's only slightly saved by a star performance by Salman Khan. Veer rates a 4.5/1o.
