Veer, the "love story"of a "warrior"...From the director of the biggest blockbuster' ever (until 25-12-2009: 3 Idiots, at least.) That's what Veer is designed to be, it's supposed to break every existing record (perhaps including Titanic's as well). Anil Sharma has gone on record to state, "I will be very disappointed if Veer doesn't shatter all possible records." Something like that. Where there are statements like these, there will always be detractors. The promos are supposedly weak (I thought they were fine), the music is isn't quite there (true!), Salman in a period war epic is not probably what his die-hard fans crave for (Wanted, Partner, etc. is more their cup of tea), the girl is giving the feel of a Katrina Kaif (much like how Lucky's Sneha Ulhal was supposedly Ms Rai's clone), and though Sallu bhai disagrees, audiences are still recovering from the 3 Idiots onslaught (considering the amount of money it is still taking in). So in lots of ways Veer is, oxymoronically, an underdog multi-crore film (Rupees 70 crore last heard), and the second in the Khan festival in three months - Aamir in December, Salman in January, SRK in February. A possible bounty for success starved Bollywood perhaps. Well the first Khan has delivered and how. The third awaits us in about three weeks; the second is here and frankly, say what you will, does deliver, at least when it comes to his presence and his performance.

It is amazing how are top 3 stars are fighting the age battle (they are all in their mid forties) and are still looking like a million bucks. Or a million botox pricks. They all hold their own in more ways than one. Salman Khan our very own Gladiator (hardly any resemblance to the film), Achilles from Troy (does have glimpses of the character), Braveheart (does have the seeds of it's thought of "freeeedom"), Leonidas from 300 (similar upbringing), does give any Hollywood war hero full on competition and stands tall and strong as the forgotten warrior who is born to be a legend, is the strongest of his clan (though his father still kicks his ass), falls in love with the daughter of his faction's arch enemy (no surprises there), has to pull off an underhand scheme like the Goras, take part in a Swayamvar for his woman's hand and finally has to duel with his father to prove his point. As you can see there is a lot going on in this epic piece written by the actor himself and it's been a long time coming (15 years, last heard). But the actor and the star in Salman does hold all of it together, be it his physique, his intensity, his fresh look, just his walk, and the way he carries off the long hair without looking ridiculous. It is a massive film, and a lot of effort has gone in almost every shot. It absolutely needed a star of the stature of Salman to make it possible. He has really been working it out in his movies off late, be it all the dancing and fighting in the smash-hit Wanted or playing a mirror reflection of himself in London Dreams. Salman is putting his hand up and definitely wants to be counted as one massive force still to be reckoned with. His efforts are not always rewarded and many times his non-efforts are, but this time he does show up and that too in style, so cheers to that Sallu bhai, we'll have a round on you tonight.

The performances are good enough, Mithunda (aaayyyeee!) is great as Dadda, brother Sohail is doing his bit of monkeying around as the younger bro, even the new girl Zarine Khan has her moments of looking pretty, but canwe please get a new voice for all these leading ladies, Bipasha in Raaz, Deepika in OSO, Katrina too, please stop it, enough. Anyway, Jackie, Puru Rajkumar, the supporting cast and the other Goras are alright, they don't hurt you, but I don't know what Bharat Dabholkar and Rajesh Vivek (Lagaan) were doing though, but that's not important. I must reiterate that the film doesn't make me leave the hall satisfied because in balancing the love, revenge and war, something, somewhere gets muddled up. The love triangle, the un-tacky CG, the camerawork, the scale, the performances, it's all there, but in the end, it doesn't all add up together. And that sums up Veer.

Salman was pretty sure what he was doing, the investors were probably sure what they were investing in (they got their fingers crossed right now), the director of Gadar was sure that he was hoping to re-create his epic performance, but the only thing I'm sure about is that Veer is not one of those films that you just stay away from, it has its moments, is a massive film and does give you an Indian period-war-piece feel; an epic attempt, but not making it, finally.