Film / Veer-Zaara

Across the border is a man who would give his life for you.

Are they humans in divine form or God in human form?

- Saamiya Siddiqui

Veer-Zaara is a 2004 Indian epic romantic drama film directed by Yash Chopra (returning to the director's chair for the first time since 1997's Dil To Pagal Hai), written by Aditya Chopra, and produced by the Chopras' banner of Yash Raj Films. The film is shot in Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi, and stars Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, and Rani Mukherji. It was released on November 12, 2004.

When the Government of Pakistan, in a spirit of goodwill, declares the reopening of several unsolved cases involving Indian prisoners in Pakistan, budding human rights lawyer Saamiya Siddiqui (Mukherji) receives her first case: that of Prisoner No. 786 in a prison in Lahore, who has not spoken to anyone for the last 22 years. Initially unresponsive to her pleas to let her help him, he responds when she says his real name, Veer Pratap Singh (Khan), before telling her the story of how he, a former Indian Air Force Squadron Leader, met and fell in love with Zaara Hayaat Khan (Zinta), the daughter of a wealthy Pakistani politician, who had come to India to fulfil her grandmother's final wish.

An ode to the Chopras' ancestral home of Punjab, which was split in two following The Partition of India, Veer-Zaara received universal critical acclaim and was the highest-grossing Indian film of 2004, portraying themes of feminism, secularism, a shared Punjabi culture, and a desire for peace and fraternity between India and Pakistan. The acclaimed soundtrack was credited to the late Madan Mohan from unused compositions revised by his son Sanjeev Kohli, leading to him receiving awards for it thirty years after his death.

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Veer-Zaara contains examples of:

• Accidental Misnaming: Subverted. When Saamiya rises to give her opening statement, this being her first ever opening statement in any case, she refers to the prosecution lawyer Zakir Ahmed as "Zaheer Khan". After she does it the second time, Zakir angrily corrects her...which turns out to have been intentional: she angrily asks him that, if he was so outraged at having been called by the wrong name twice, how does he think a man who has been known by either a wrong name or a number for the last 22 years would feel?
• Age Cut:
  • Several scenes have Veer morph into his older self, cutting back to the present where he is talking with Saamiya in prison.
  • During the "Tere Liye" sequence, when Veer and Zaara see each other when Zaara comes to court to prove Veer's innocence, they transition to their younger selves as they look at each other, indicating the timelessness of their love.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: While seeing Zaara off at Attari railway station and after meeting her fiancé Raza, Veer tells her that he loves her, and that he had hoped to marry her, something that will now be impossible; however, he tells her that, no matter what, she will always have someone who would be happy to lay down his life for her.
  Zaara: So silly of me. I spoke of everything, but I forgot to tell you about Raza.
  Veer: You forgot something very important.
  Zaara: Excuse me?
  Veer: You forgot something very important. [stands up] Zaara, I am a very simple man – I speak plainly and understand when spoken to plainly. For the first time, because of father and mother, I started thinking differently. Throughout the journey, I thought I could somehow have you stay here, not letting you go, and tell you that I like you very much, and if you find me somewhat decent, then we could marry. Then we could live the rest of our days happily, as we spent the last two days. But the ways of the man upstairs are strange – He raised my spirits throughout the journey, but changed everything after I reached here. [turns to face her] You may be wondering why I am telling you all this now. Please, don't misunderstand me. I understand that you belong to someone else, and that there isn't, nor will there be, any such relationship between us. But whenever, wherever you need a friend, just remember that there is a person across the border who would give his life for you.
• Artistic License: Most notably, several characters seem to be able to travel at a whim between India and Pakistan in both the past and present – Zaara seems to have been able to essentially sneak into India without her parents' knowledge mere days after her grandmother's death, while Saamiya is able to take a train to India and return within a week. Visa processes between the two countries usually take much more time.
• Arranged Marriage: Zaara is engaged to Raza Sharazi, the scion of the wealthy and influential Sharazi family of Lahore, as part of an alliance between their families to aid her father's political aspirations. After her return to Pakistan, Zaara is tormented by thoughts of Veer, culminating in her tearfully embracing him when he comes to her engagement, causing Jahangir to collapse; the fear of another, potentially fatal, shock to him causes Veer to convince Zaara to marry Raza, which she does. When Zaara learns of Veer's supposed death in the bus crash, she files for divorce with the support of her father; Raza is said to have moved abroad, while Zaara moves to Veer's village with Shabbo to fulfil his dream of creating a girls' school.
• Book Ends: Saamiya is introduced talking to her father's grave right before her first case. The ending has her put flowers on the same grave after securing Veer's freedom.
• Busby Berkeley Number: The "Lodi" song sequence, involving several villagers dancing together to celebrate the titular festival as Chaudhary Sumer Singh woos his wife Saraswati.
• Casting Gag: When speaking to Zaara, Saraswati Kaur says that she is a Tamil woman who married a Punjabi man, as is Hema Malini in real life.
• Darkest Hour: Two, in fact.
  • For Veer and Zaara's relationship, when Veer is forced to falsely confess to being an Indian spy, condemning himself to prison for life, while Zaara is forced to marry Raza, a man who she doesn't love and (unknown to her) was wholly willing to turn her life into a living hell if Veer didn't confess, for the sake of her father. Notably, both scenes occur at the same time, and are framed identically, complete with the garlands in Zaara's wedding framed in front of her face similar to prison bars, and has both of them responding to the questions that they have been asked (Zaara as to whether she consents to the marriage, and Veer whether he accepts the charges against him) with the words "I do."
  • For Saamiya's case, after Zakir Ahmed viciously tears her apart in court, and given that Veer has forbidden her from mentioning Zaara's name in the proceedings, she resolves to travel to Veer's village in India to find his adoptive parents, who would be able to testify on his behalf. Unfortunately, when she reaches the village, she learns that both Chaudhary Sumer Singh and his wife have passed away in the interim, leaving Saamiya to suffer a Heroic BSoD as her case is seemingly lost.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Both Veer and Zaara suffered terribly for their love: Veer lived in prison for 22 years in silence while Zaara spent that time believing he was dead and living in his village to fulfil his dream. With Saamiya's help, Veer can finally be freed, complete with a public apology from the Pakistani government, and the two return to India hand-in-hand in the ending.
  Saamiya: You had once said that Veer and Zaara can never be together. But from today, the names Veer and Zaara will be spoken together forever.
• Good Luck Charm: When Veer is leaving Lahore after being resigned to see Zaara married to Raza, Mariyam ties a band around his arm as a sign of her blessing. Moments later, police officers bribed by Raza drag Veer out of the bus to arrest him on trumped-up charges of espionage, which means that he is not on the bus when it crashes on the way back, killing all on board. Veer himself credits the band (and Mariyam's blessings) with keeping him alive, and gifts it to Saamiya when she decides to go to India; Saamiya shows it to Zaara as proof of her identity and mission.
• Heel–Face Turn: Several characters are transformed by The Power of Love.
  • The guard at the start, who initially is sexist to Saamiya (commenting to her face about how women entering men's jobs "will mean we will have to learn to cook" in a clearly demeaning manner) and condescendingly refers to Veer solely as "786" later testifies at his trial as to his good behaviour and requests the judge to free Veer.
  • Jahangir Hayaat Khan is introduced as a proud man who refuses to talk to his daughter for a month because of her trip to India, and, when he does speak to her, treats her less as a person and more as a symbol of the Hayaat Khan family's honour. He is also the one responsible for Zaara being betrothed to Raza, a marriage neither of them really wanted, to form an alliance with the Sharazi family and thereby aid his political aspirations. Seeing Zaara embrace Veer at her engagement shocks him so much that he collapses, and seems to bring about a change of heart: he apologizes to her when she talks to him on her wedding day, and later, when Veer is presumed dead, he fully supports her decision to divorce Raza, subsequently quitting politics.
  • Zakir Ahmed starts out as a particularly spiteful Amoral Attorney, who openly tells Saamiya that he has chosen to prosecute this case, which would typically be far below his standing, solely to destroy her career after she refused a case that he had assigned her. His behaviour in court also involves a great deal of emotional manipulation of the truth, where he collaborates with the crooked cops who had arrested Veer as well as shames the prison guard for "not being a patriot" after the latter gives a positive account of Veer. However, after Zaara presents her testimony, thereby exonerating Veer and breaking his multi-year streak of wins, he gracefully accepts defeat and tells Saamiya he intends to retire to allow her generation, untouched by the resentments of the past, to usher in a new age of truth and love.
• Heroic Vow: After hearing Veer's story, Saamiya swears that she will not put flowers on her father's grave till he is freed. She is seen doing so in her last solo scene, before she goes to drop off Veer and Zaara at the India–Pakistan border.
• Innocent Bigot: When Chaudhary Sumer Singh shows Zaara the village on his bicycle, he talks about his efforts to establish a school in the village, which allowed the boys in the village to gain education for the first time. When Zaara asks him about education for the girls of the village, he dismisses it, asking what purpose it would serve when all they would do is housework anyway. However, Zaara telling him about how the world outside the village has women doing whatever men can do chastens him, and that very night, after the Lohri celebrations, he announces the construction of a girls' school in the village, even asking Zaara to lay the first brick. While it is unclear whether the school ever got built, Zaara has been running a girls' school from Chaudhary Sumer Singh's home since Veer's alleged death.
• Karma Houdini: Other than Zaara divorcing him, Raza gets no comeuppance for framing Veer as an Indian spy and blackmailing him into a confession that saw him be falsely imprisoned for 22 years.
• Love Hurts: Zaara is tormented by thoughts of Veer after her return from India, particularly his promise that he would give his life for her, especially given that she is to wed Raza in a matter of days. The "Main Yahan Hoon" sequence has her see Veer everywhere, to the point that she tearfully begs Shabbo to "make him go away", prompting her to call Veer to ask him to elope with Zaara.
• Match Cut: Several of these, most commonly used to transition between the past and the present. Notably, a scene where Veer drops a glass of lassi in the past cuts to an empty glass of water clattering to the ground in the present.
• Nephewism: Veer is an orphan; Chaudhary Sumer Singh is his uncle (specifically, his father's elder brother). Veer, however, considers him and Saraswati Kaur his parents, calling them "father" and "mother".
• Numerological Motif: "786", of course, a number which represents the Bismillah, particularly in South Asian Islam (which is why it comes up several times in Indian cinema, most notably Deewaar). Saamiya even notes the irony of the one prisoner with this number in a Pakistani jail being an Indian Sikh.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The prison guard, who leers at Saamiya as she is filling out the paperwork and talks about how if women are doing men's jobs then men will soon have to cook for themselves.
  • Zakir Ahmed, though he is less overt about this. When he talks about how he had assigned Saamiya a case, he says that he did so "despite" her being a woman.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Inverted. Saamiya was once one of Zakir Ahmed's star proteges, till she refused to take a case to defend a guilty man, after which she left his employ and became a human rights lawyer. Zakir seems to have taken this personally; he admits to have taken this case, normally a case far below his standing, solely to destroy her career as a warning for any other lawyer who may wish to defy him.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Veer is surreptitiously pulled off the bus to India by Raza's police lackeys, which means his name is still on the passenger list; therefore, when the bus crashes en route with no survivors, he is presumed dead. Veer, for his part, accepts this, noting that he is glad that his parents think that he is dead rather than them being worried about him being missing, though he resignedly notes that "Veer Pratap Singh died in the bus crash and the only identity [he has] left is Prisoner No. 786." In the end, the Pakistani government officially recognizes him as Veer Pratap Singh, and he is free to return to India with Zaara.
• Romantic Rain: There is audible thunder during Zaara's engagement, but no sign of rain as she, Raza, and their families start the ceremony, nor when Veer enters the place. However, when Zaara, who has been haunted by Veer's memory since her return from India, senses his presence, turns around and sees him, torrential rain begins pouring almost immediately as she, without caring for the fact that her family and fiancé are watching, walks towards him before tearfully embracing him.
• Sadistic Choice: Raza inflicts one on Veer: either sign a document framing himself as an Indian spy and go to jail for life under a false identity but ensure that Zaara lives happily, or return to India without signing the document but ensure that Zaara's married life becomes a living hell. Veer chooses the first option to protect Zaara, and indeed begs Saamiya to keep Zaara's name out of proceedings even 22 years later. Due to circumstance, this turns out to have been a pointless choice – after the bus accident that everyone believes claimed Veer's life, Zaara divorced Raza and moved to Veer's village.
• Scenery Porn: Cinematographer Anil Mehta has several shots and scenes showcase the beauty of Punjab, particularly large fields of wheat and sunflowers.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Veer and Zaara have essentially every barrier placed between them: he is an Indian Sikh who is an Air Force pilot, while she is the Pakistani Muslim daughter of a wealthy and influential politician for whom any association with India could be scandalous. Despite being kept apart for 22 years, their love for each other remains strong – Veer has not spoken a word during his entire time in prison to protect Zaara's honour, believing her to be happily married by now, while Zaara has moved to India, where she runs a girls' school in Veer's village to fulfil his dream. In the end, the two are reunited with Saamiya's help.
• Tragic Keepsake: When Veer and Zaara return from his village, Zaara's foot twists while on the wooden bridge, and Veer has to carry her to safety; during this time, one of her anklets comes off, and he puts it in his pocket for safekeeping. When she gets on the train to Lahore, he realizes that it is still in his pocket, and she wordlessly tells him to keep it. Veer holds on to that anklet ever since, including throughout his time in prison – he can often be seen fiddling with it when Saamiya talks to him. When Zaara comes to court to testify as to Veer's innocence, Veer returns it to her and she asks him to put it back on; heartbreakingly, it turns out that she had only worn one of her anklets for all those years.
• Undying Loyalty: Shabbo remains by Zaara's side and is her strongest support no matter what. When Zaara, tormented by thoughts of Veer, begs Shabbo for help, she calls Veer to ask him to elope with her. She is also revealed to have come with Zaara to Veer's village.
• Wham Line: "Zaara!" As Saamiya is walking away from Chaudhary Sumer Singh's house, now a school for girls, resigned to defeat after learning of his and his wife's deaths but happy to see their dream fulfilled, she hears Shabbo shout this, only for Zaara herself to emerge from the building chasing after a child.
• Whole-Plot Reference: To Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, another Aditya Chopra-written film, which also had a Punjabi woman who has been betrothed through an Arranged Marriage take a trip to another country, fall in love with a character played by Shah Rukh Khan, and pine for him when she returns over the objections of her mother.
• The World Is Just Awesome: The point of the "Aisa Des Hai Mera" sequence, though it is more "My Land Is Just Awesome", where Veer describes his Punjab as a beautiful land full of culture and love; it even avoids nationalistic implications by having Zaara sing about how her land too is like his, and the two sing together about how their homes are more similar than different.
• You Are Number 6: Veer seems to have been referred to as "786" throughout his time in prison. Indeed, as he later reveals, the only reason he spoke to Saamiya is because she referred to him by name, seeing that she was the only one who believed that he was innocent and a human being.