Memoirs of SRK's Love Legend Veer Zaara

A book review of 'They said it...Memoirs of A Love Legend Yash Chopra’s Veer-Zaara' by Faridoon Shahryar.

Main qaidi number saat sau chyasi
Jail ki salaakhon se bahar dekhta hoon
Din Mahine saalon ko yug mein
Badalte dekhta hoon…
Main qaidi number saat so chyasi…

It goes without saying that the above lines recited by a tired-n-forlorn Shah Rukh Khan in Yash Chopra’s Veer-Zaara elicited the sigh of goose pimples. But did you know that this poignant poem reeking of mithaas of Punjabi chaas was completed by scriptwriter Aditya Chopra only an hour before the actual shot was being canned on an ornate Sharmishta Roy set of a Pakistani Court? Well, all this and many more details have been chronicled in a lavish coffee table book They said it…The Memoirs of A Love Legend Yash Chopra’s Veer-Zaara.

The first thing that grips you as you rustle your way through this heavy book is the brilliant still photographs of Ishika Mohan. The rustic charm of the lodi song, SRK, Preity sharing moments of togetherness before a movie camera, Yash Chopra explaining a shot to cinematographer Anil Mehta in the sarson ka khet, Chopra attentively listening to a Saroj Khan dance move on a huge set while the dusk is setting in, the rooftop shots of the court and the jail, the lilting colors of flower beds wedded to mountains….there are too many wonderful pictures piecing together the movie making experience and all of them have a story to tell.

The entire cast and crew has shared the experience of making Veer-Zaara. What is notable is that apart from big stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherji, Anupam Kher, Kirron Kher and Divya Dutta, there are notes written by almost each and everyone involved with the making of the film in any capacity whatsoever. But with so many people talking about one subject, there’s bound to be repetitions in choice of adjectives to praise the makers of the film. To be honest, beyond a point the sugar coated remarks can make a diabetic run for his doctor frantically.

Well, something that is unique about this book is that in a rare instance you get to read-and-see the grossly reclusive filmmaker Aditya Chopra (all you press people who’ve been using a single mug-shot of Visionary Chopra for a long time, it’s your chance to get a much more clear frame in this book). Aditya Chopra doesn’t give interviews though there are legends about him that he watches every Hindi film first day first show in Mumbai cinema halls. In a long time you actually get to know his mind as he shares the experience of working on the “most challenging” project of his career as a script writer. He writes that for the first time he consciously thought in Hindi/ Urdu as opposed to thinking in English (Would you believe it, he wrote Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Mohabbatein first in English and then translated them in Hindi). He admits there were many moments of doubts while writing the film but it paid off because of the end result. We quote what he writes at the end of his note to express his feelings more lucidly:

Months later I was having dinner with my parents at home and I casually asked my Dad that which was his personal favourite film out of all the films he had directed in forty five years. He said that for a long time it’s been Lamhe, but today I’m creatively most satisfied with Veer-Zaara. I just smiled and went back to eating, my parents didn’t know that I had just won the greatest award of my life. I was the writer of Mr Yash Chopra’s personal favourite film of his career.

Veer-Zaara may be Yash Chopra’s personal favourite, but there are many who’ll disagree with that. Even when the film released, the references of DDLJ in the film were hard to miss. People still remember Chopra’s classics like Waqt, Deewar and Kabhi Kabhi with open eyed amazement. Who can forget the timeless dialogue by Akhtar-ul-Imaan in Waqt where Rajkumar says, Chinai seth ye bachchon ke khelne ki cheez nahin hai, haath kat jaaye to khoon nikal aata hai. It was the first film that set the tone for lost-n-found theme in Hindi Cinema. The poetic tenor of Kabhi Kabhi and the razor sharp Deewar is a favourite of millions any day. Some say Lamhe was the last soul stirring film made by Yash Chopra, a film made without any compromises. Never mind….

Talking about the book there are many more interesting anecdotes and creative ideations that are noteworthy. The recreation of Madan Mohan’s music by his son Sanjiv Kohli is one such instance. Kohli, the CEO of Yashraj Films worked very hard on attempting to blend Yashraj style with his dad’s classical touch. He almost succeeded, though the choice of Lata Mangeshkar’s voice for all the female numbers is debatable. In the making of the music, Kohli merged the raw voice of his father the late Madan Mohan captured on 30 year old tapes with the voices of Veer-Zaara’s album creating a surreal feel.

Sound designer Anuj Mathur gave a small glimpse in Yash Chopra’s open attitude by agreeing to Sync Sound instead of the conventional ‘dubbing’ that the seasoned filmmaker had been used to. There are also echoes from the cast and crew of the film about the youthful ebullience of Chopra who in spite of being down due to an accident carried on, aided by crutches so that the film’s schedule doesn’t go topsy-turvy. Another piece of information that I found interesting was the role of script & design consultant Nasreen Rehman from Pakistan who taught Divya Dutta (amongst everybody else but it was Dutta who stole everyone’s heart with her delicious Punjabi accent) to speak Punjabi the way it is spoken in Pakistan. She also gave inputs to Sharmishta Roy on the sets and Manish Malhotra on the Pakistani clothes.

The latter half of this book is filled with quotes from people all over the world (Veer-Zaara was widely appreciated by Pakistanis as they were not the villains for once and even Germans and French related to the film perfectly). There are shots from the grand premiere of the film held in Mumbai with the who’s who of the film industry making all the ‘right’ noises.

They said it…The Memoirs of a Love Legend Yash Chopra’s Veer-Zaara is a wonderful coffee table book with some mesmerizing pictures and warm tales of hospitality, hard work and brotherhood. It talks about a film that is one of the biggest hits of this century that has healed hearts across borders. Go for it!

Rating: ***1/2

Faridoon Shahryar, IndiaFM