Review: Veer is a disaster, period

The son of a legendary hero grows up and attempts to follow in his father's footsteps, however bloodthirsty this road may be. It is standard Bollywood cliche, but Salim Khan, one of our most iconic screenwriters, deserves a better tribute than son Salman, credited for the film's story, churning out this unbelievably hackneyed period disaster.

Director Anil Sharma has never been known for his subtlety, and here, sinking his teeth into the painfully melodramatic script, he goes at it hammer and tongs, taking one megabudget misstep after another.

Set ambiguously in the nineteenth century, this is the story of a warrior clan, the Pindharis, a mercenary lot who become sworn enemies with the King of Madhavgarh, Rajasthan [ Images ] after the latter betrays them, joining hands with the British for a full-blooded Pindhari slaughter.

All this happens in the first few minutes of Veer, Mithun's Pindhari sergeant hacking off the King's (Jackie Shroff [ Images ]) hand right in the prologue, so even as you realise this is going to be a noisy, hoofbeat filled monstrosity, at least there can be wall to wall action? No such luck.

Ghai, Boney turned down Salman's Veer

Wednesday night, myself struggling to take down notes, the candle flickering; he in jeans and tee having shed the armour of Veer, smooth muscles rippling in the dark shadows, glass in hand, cigarette in the mouth.

While his new 25-day-old French Mastiff pup, just finding its feet, snapped at my ankles and domestic helps, electricians, and the security men of Galaxy Apartments struggled to bring back the lights. It was high drama! He had just got back from doing interviews at Mehboob Studios. And waiting for him was a young choreographer to lead him through the steps of a dance he was doing at some awards function last night. At least, the choreographer was prancing around, Salman watched with a frown. “The next step is Bang-Bang,” the choreographer was saying. “Bang-Bang,” Salman said incredulously, “Woh kya hota hai?” Then to me he turned and said, “Ask!” That’s when the house plunged into darkness.

Much, much later, electricity partially restored, he talked to me about Veer, his new big film for Eros International Media Ltd. produced by Vijay Galani and directed by Anil Sharma that’s releasing on January 22. “It has the authenticity of Mughal-e-Azam and the spirit of Dharam-Veer,” Salman said. “But till it doesn’t release and I don’t hear the audience’s reaction, I can’t form an opinion. Humne poori jaan lagayee. If the audience is khush, hum khush, then we’ll go laughing to the bank! But there’s no formula for films. If the film is successful, the success will be attributed to just about anybody; but, God forbid, if it fails... I’ll be blamed, because I wrote it and acted in it. I’m okay with both situations. People see the 30-second promos, they expect the whole film to be like that.