Veer Gives a Feeling of Déjà Vu

Recently the first look promo of Veer was launched and one can't get over the similarities it has to Ashutosh Gowariker's Jodhaa Akbar, a film which swept all awards last year. Not only have they used an almost identical font for the supers in the promo, many of the shots and treatments are similar. While Jodhaa Akbar had Hrithik bare-chested holding a shield in an elephant taming sequence, the promo of Veer shows a shirtless Salman holding a shield as well. Several top angle landscape and action shots are extremely similar as is even the dialogue about each character talking about the love for their nation. While Jodhaa Akbar used the line 'an epic romance' Veer has used 'an epic love story' and an almost identical font. Inspiration is a good thing, but we can't say the same thing for blatant copying. It looks like Veer is drawing from Jodhaa Akbar in order to recreate the same magic, but instead of awing us the way the promo of Jodhaa Akbar had done; we felt Veer was a weak attempt at aping Gowariker's magnum opus. Quite sad actually because some of the shots of Veer have massive scale and a more original, shorter trailer could have really created an impact. The film maybe something great, but we can only hope that Veer's campaign stops treading the path of Jodhaa Akbar, and begins looking for something original.