Veer-Zaara

Rachel Young
Yash Chopra’s 2004 film Veer-Zaara provides an interesting look at the relationship between India and Pakistan, as well as making some interesting social commentaries on the roles of women within each society. The film focuses on a young Pakistani Muslim woman named Zaara and an Indian Sikh man named Veer. After Zaara’s nanny dies, she undertakes a dangerous journey by herself to India to have the old woman’s ashes spread at Kiritpur. On the way, Zaara’s bus crashes and she is rescued by Veer, an Indian Air Force pilot. At first Veer is disgusted with Zaara when he thinks that she selfishly endangered both of their lives in an attempt to reclaim her fallen bag, but he later discovers that the ashes of the old woman had been in the bag and he begins to respect Zaara. After scattering the ashes at Kiritpur, Veer asks Zaara to spend one day in his home village, where she meets his aunt and uncle (who raised him) and fits comfortably into the lifestyle. Zaara also manages to make a great impression on Veer’s family, who convince him that he should marry her. As Veer takes Zaara to the train station, he discovers that she has a fiancé and, heartbroken, he tells her that he loves her and would die for her.
After Zaara returns home, she slowly realizes that she too loves Veer. Her best friend secretly contacts Veer and requests that he come and take Zaara away. When Veer reaches Pakistan, the shock of Zaara’s love causes her father to become ill, so Zaara’s mother comes to Veer and begs him to leave Pakistan so that the family can be happy. Veer acquiesces, but as he boards the bus to India, he is arrested for being a spy. As he is being questioned about being an Indian spy, Veer learns that Zaara’s fiancé had him framed, but Veer decides not to expose his relationship with Zaara so that she can live a happy life. He is put in jail and for 22 doesn’t speak to anyone until, one day, a female lawyer named Saamiya is given his case. Saamiya is trying to pave the way for female lawyers in Pakistan, and as this is her first case, she must win. After listening to Veer’s story, Saamiya goes to India to discover that Zaara has been living in Veer’s home village for years. Zaara returns to Pakistan to testify on Veer’s behalf, the court case is won, Veer is released, and the two lovers are finally reunited.
Veer-Zaara at first glance appears to show both India and Pakistan in an equal light, but on closer inspection, we begin to see a slight discrepancy. For example, Indians are represented as being very modern, with Veer’s parents not caring where Zaara is from and what her religion is, as long as she makes Veer happy. Zaara’s parents, on the other hand, absolutely won’t stand for her marrying an Indian Sikh, since it will hurt the family’s reputation. Also, Zaara’s nanny was a Sikh, and raised her with Indian ideals, which marks Zaara as different from all of her Pakistani family, since they are shown as selfish and only thinking about their own happiness. Zaara thinks about others and sacrifices her own happiness for that of her family.
Beyond these slight digs at Pakistan, the movie makes an effort to represent India and Pakistan as equal. Veer sings a song to Zaara as he shows her India, after which she comments that his country is the same as hers. There is also an ease of transition for Zaara when she visits India; she never has trouble fitting into the ways of a country that is not her own, showing that India and Pakistan are very similar.
Veer-Zaara also makes an effort to bring women’s rights to light. We see Saamiya as a woman struggling to pave the way for future female lawyers in Pakistan, and a lot of time is spent in the film with her discussing how important her work is to other women. On top of that, Zaara has a discussion with her mother during which she is told that men cannot love the same way that women do, that they are not strong enough to do so, and that women must always be the ones to sacrifice in a relationship. There is also the scene in which Zaara convinces Veer’s father that instead of building an arena in the village, he should build a school for girls, since the wealth of the nation is in the education of its children.
This movie had many good messages in it, and tries fairly hard to keep nationalist grudges out of the story, which was very much appreciated on my part. It was rather depressing for me to see how Veer and Zaara aged alone, both wanting the other and not knowing that they were both waiting for each other. Plus, there is no real sense of justice at the end of the film when Veer is released from prison, but perhaps I have imposed my Western ideas of story formation on the film and shouldn’t expect justice. All in all, however, I really liked this film and think that it has some good points to make and a fun story.