(Romance/Period)When you walk into a costume drama written by Salman Khan and directed by Anil Sharma, historical accuracy, consistency and plausibility are not high on the priority list. After all, Sharma has directed films like Hukumat, Elan-e-Jung and most famously Gaddar: Ek Prem Katha, in which a lone Sunny Deol routed the Pakistani army with a handpump. What you’re looking for is an old-fashioned Hindi film brimming with tough men, beautiful women, chest-thumping dialogue and no-holds-barred melodrama.
Veer, a Manmohan Desai-meets-Gladiator epic, provides this but doesn’t weave it together with enough imagination or panache. This mega-scale love story has patches of power but mostly veers between being ridiculous and plain boring. There are moments of comedy that will have you laughing till your sides ache – it’s unintentional of course.
Heavily inspired by the 1962 Tony Curtis film Taras Bulba, Veer is set in colonial India and concerns a Rajputana tribe known as the Pindharis. These are unique warrior alcoholics. They are good at killing and drinking and have a dress sense that combines Gujarat emporium outfits with fur and seriously unkempt hair.
When the king of Madhavgarh, played by Jackie Shroff, cheats the Pindharis to please the British, the tribals swear revenge. The head Prithvi Singh, played by Mithun Chakraborty, even sends his sons Veer and Punya, played by Salman and Sohail Khan, to London for an education so they can figure out how the British mind works. Matters become complicated when Veer falls in love with the princess of Madhavgarh, played by debutant actress Zarine Khan, whom the Mumbai tabloids have uncharitably dubbed 'F'atrina because she looks like Katrina after too many pastries.
Veer valiantly battles the wicked king and the British and even manages to kick-start the Indian independence movement.
The best thing about Veer is that it is comic book cinema no pretensions. Without a trace of embarrassment or apology, Sharma goes full throttle on speeches to the motherland, honour, mardangi. And as Manmohan Desai told us decades ago: Mard ko dard nahin hota, so Veer snarls and slices through men without pausing for breath.
At one point, he pulls out a man’s intestines with his bare hands. To win the princess, he even participates in a strange swayamvar that has him jousting with a gigantic British man in a gladiator-style combat.
It’s basically Salman’s blockbuster Wanted set in a historical twilight zone. Very little of Veer makes sense but the lack of logic isn’t the problem here. Boredom is.
Veer, a Manmohan Desai-meets-Gladiator epic, provides this but doesn’t weave it together with enough imagination or panache. This mega-scale love story has patches of power but mostly veers between being ridiculous and plain boring. There are moments of comedy that will have you laughing till your sides ache – it’s unintentional of course.
Heavily inspired by the 1962 Tony Curtis film Taras Bulba, Veer is set in colonial India and concerns a Rajputana tribe known as the Pindharis. These are unique warrior alcoholics. They are good at killing and drinking and have a dress sense that combines Gujarat emporium outfits with fur and seriously unkempt hair.
When the king of Madhavgarh, played by Jackie Shroff, cheats the Pindharis to please the British, the tribals swear revenge. The head Prithvi Singh, played by Mithun Chakraborty, even sends his sons Veer and Punya, played by Salman and Sohail Khan, to London for an education so they can figure out how the British mind works. Matters become complicated when Veer falls in love with the princess of Madhavgarh, played by debutant actress Zarine Khan, whom the Mumbai tabloids have uncharitably dubbed 'F'atrina because she looks like Katrina after too many pastries.
Veer valiantly battles the wicked king and the British and even manages to kick-start the Indian independence movement.
The best thing about Veer is that it is comic book cinema no pretensions. Without a trace of embarrassment or apology, Sharma goes full throttle on speeches to the motherland, honour, mardangi. And as Manmohan Desai told us decades ago: Mard ko dard nahin hota, so Veer snarls and slices through men without pausing for breath.
At one point, he pulls out a man’s intestines with his bare hands. To win the princess, he even participates in a strange swayamvar that has him jousting with a gigantic British man in a gladiator-style combat.
It’s basically Salman’s blockbuster Wanted set in a historical twilight zone. Very little of Veer makes sense but the lack of logic isn’t the problem here. Boredom is.
Read the rest here.
2 comments:
"If like me, you can find delight in the sheer delirium of a bad Bollywood film, then see Veer, otherwise do catch it on DVD. In a few years, this sensibility and swagger will be extinct."
Hahaha ... I am not watching this, not even on DVD.
Raja Sen's review is hilarious!
About the leading lady he says:
Then there's Zarine Khan, looking like a stout stewardess from Emirates, who catches Veer's fancy and walks around trying hard to pout, while Neena Gupta [ Images ], playing Veer's mother, is so besotted by Mithun that the couple pretty much makes love to a cheering Pindhari audience. No wonder the kid turned out veerd.
http://movies.rediff.com/report/2010/jan/22/movie-review-veer.htm
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