Veer: Brace Yourselves For Disappointment

Veer is supposed to be one out of the many brave patriots who fought for India’s freedom. Belonging to the Pindaris, he is a warrior, brought up to become one of the toughest and bravest.

Prithvi Singh (Mithun Chakroborty) trains his son with the goal of avenging an old betrayal, by the King of Madhavgarh (Jackie Shroff), and ultimately overthrowing the British regime. Uneducated himself, he believes that thinking like the British is vital in order to defeat them. Veer and his brother Punya (Sohail Khan) are sent to London, against his wishes, as he is desperate to find a Princess, who he falls in love with in India at just a mere glance. Coincidentally, he finds her in London! Although Yashodhara is a royal, it turns out she studies in the same school as Veer.

As the two fall in love, there is a lot of clowning around, songs and fantasy sequences galore. Veer and Punya become gentlemen, get makeovers and gel with the British and are accepted despite the broken English and the fact they are Indian. Veer writes regularly to his (uneducated) father who can miraculously read, while Punya hits on the gori mems. Veer is despised by Yashodhara’s brother for being a ‘bloody Indian’ even though he himself is an Indian who willingly lets the British walk all over him.

When the time comes to meet Yashodhara’s father, he discovers it’s his father’s archenemy- King of Madhavgarh. The Prince figures this out which leads to a fight where Veer kills him. He returns to India after promising the Princess that visiting Madhavgarh was on his agenda, not only to win back land but also to marry her. In the absence of another heir, Yashodhara replaces her brother as Yuvragi and takes the oath to be loyal to her kingdom above anything (read Veer).

Prithvi is seemingly overjoyed that his son is in love with the enemy and encourages him to go get her. Veer enters Madhavgarh under the disguise of a Prince. He works out a coup in order to conquer the kingdom yet managing to marry the Princess. A battle ensues, which involves quite a few confrontations and the story of Veer becomes a part of history.

The movie has no flow and seems quite confused. Sohail and Salman make constipated expressions, and are helped by weird background noises. The romance falls flat and the dialogues don’t help. The dramatic direction fails miserably and the dubbing is way off. The wardrobe is as confused about its origin as the movie is about its genre. For a diehard patriot, Veer seems to love the British look well enough even after returning to India and when he gets into warrio- mode, his hair magically grows. The music is mediocre and all songs seem to have similar tunes.

It’s quite an effort sitting through the movie and Salman’s body is no saving grace.

Contributed by Raashi Malhotra