 Salman Khan revisits London for the second time in less than a year, and this time the disaster is bigger than the last time. “London Dreams” was a poor effort, but “Veer” is poorer because it not only tells a hackneyed story in a manner that gets no points for originality but also because the rest of the elements are half-baked, to use a kind expression. The grandiose claims of it being a desi ‘Braveheart’ or a ‘Gladiator’ fall short because those films dealt with a universal theme and were backed by brilliant performances from the respective lead actors.
In “Veer”, Salman is, well, Salman and the rest are conspicuous by the absence of their acting abilities. Director Anil Sharma may have scored a hit with the jingoistic “Gadar”, but that dealt with Pakistan. With the passage of time, we’ve probably become too used to the ‘British-as-the-bad-guys’ set up (yes, “Lagaan” dealt with the same, but hey we at least love cricket!) to care. Throw in garish (apparently expensive) costumes, odd looking sets (not quite consistently corresponding to a particular period – what time is this? 18th century? 19th century?) and a fairly stretched out story line and you have a film that makes no connection and touches no chords.
Here’s how the story goes – there are Pindaris, a Rajputana warrior clan, whose head Prithvi Singh (Mithun Chakraborty) wants revenge on the King of Madhavgarh (Jackie Shroff) because he had signed a back door deal with the British to cheat the Pindaris. The job is entrusted to Prithvi Singh’s sons, Veer (Salman Khan) and Punya (Sohail Khan), but they have to go to London first. Why? To become familiar with the British and their designs for India. Talk about implausible spying! To make matters worse (and to expose Salman’s naiveté as a screenwriter), Veer falls in love with Yashodhara (Zarine Khan appears awkward as the princess), who is… wait for it… the princess of Madhavgarh! The action scenes are a little overdone too as most of the other elements in the film. Salman fights hard, in the battles on screen as well as the performances department but the supporting cast is weaker than Achilles’ heel.
The film doesn’t have a single standout sequence, a single impactful performance or even a memorable song (though there are speed breaking songs aplenty). For this “Veer”, I am afraid there’s no appreciation; all I write is an obituary.
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