The Most Romantic Movie Ever!

1/18/09

I recently rented Veer-Zaara from Blockbuster.  I have an online account there.  Anyhoo.  This is an incredibly romantic film made all the more amazing for its intrinsic Humanist message.  Basically – our two lovers are star crossed in so many ways.  One is Hindu, the other Muslim.  One is Indian, the other Pakistani.  Both are good decent people who transcend the issues inherent in their situations.  The only thing that gets them in trouble is their filial piety, which isn’t automatic, they give it willingly because their parents are such wonderful people that they truly love and want to make happy – even at the expense of their own happiness. Again – it makes them good people, not mindless drones.  You cannot separate the Humanism from the love story.  The two aspects are intertwined.  If these individuals were not Humanists, we would not consider them as virtuous as we do and we would not spend the entire 2nd half of the movie crying at the predicaments their love puts them in.  Seriously – I cried throughout the entire second half of this movie (which because this is a Bollywood movie was like 2 hours).

This movie is almost 4 hours – the first half is the origins of the love affair (boy meets girl, boy gets girl), the 2nd half is how the boy looses the girl who it turns out is engaged to someone else.  I won’t tell you how it ends.  But it is truly a tear jerker.  The music is wonderful and romantic – some of the most romantic songs I have heard in AGES!  Oh my goodness, the songs do a good job of moving the love story along.  My husband couldn’t watch the 2nd half of the movie.  He was so worked up by the romance in the first half (2 hours worth) and we still didn’t know how Veer ended up in prison.  My husband became convinced that something really bad was about to happen (like the death of Zaara), so he decided not to watch the 2nd half as he didn’t want to have his heart broken.  He missed out on some really amazing film making.

towards the end of the movie, there is a scene that is so beautiful shot with such perfect music I was in awe!  I am not embedding it because it would give away the ending.  But it is incredibly satisfying and really beautifully put together from a technical perspective.

Finally – back to the Humanism of the movie.  Veer gives a speech at the end – a poem he writes from prison that just embodies the Humanist spirit.  “How can you say we are different when we are the same.”  At all times the characters are motivated by love for each other, love for their families and their sense of responsibility to that love.  And that is what allows them to transcend the various tribalisms that threaten to keep them apart.  While I have read some Pakistani reviews saying it is anti-Pakistani – there is really only one person who is a jerk and he is a jilted lover so he has motivation to be a jerk.  Everyone else (including the Pakistani prison guard) is portrayed as compassionate loving people. Even the prosecuting attorney comes off well in the end and gives a hope for the future speech that is pure Humanism.

I’ll leave you with another clip – this one is where Zaara is getting ready to marry her fiancé and keeps dreaming of her true love Veer instead.