Veer is imprisoned on false charges, and 22 years later, a young Pakistani lawyer, named Saamiya Siddiqui (Rani Mukerji), fights his case.

Twenty-two years earlier, Zaara Hayaat Khan was a lively young Pakistani woman whose family has a political background and is of high standing in Lahore.

Veer, then an Indian Air Force pilot and a Punjabi Sikh, rescues Zaara and helps her complete her nanny's final wish.

Veer requests Saamiya not to mention Zaara whilst fighting the case, believing that she must be married by now; he does not want to ruin her reputation or make her settled life difficult.

Shabbo explains that after Zaara thought Veer died in the bus accident 22 years ago, she broke off the marriage with Raza with her father's support.

None of the new scripts excited Chopra; he expressed his disdain at the new trend of the films of the time, stating, "I was tired of television promos.

Zinta labeled it "one of the most humbling experiences of [her] life" and stated that it made her realise the difficulties male actors have to go through.

[30] In her book Violent Belongings: Partition, Gender and National Culture in Postcolonial India, Kavita Daiya, associate professor of English at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences feels that Zaara represents secularism in Pakistan.

[31] Nandini Bhattacharya, author of the book Hindi Cinema: Repeating the Subject, differs and instead feels that Veer's character is "partially feminized"–"men are meant to be captors, not captives.

"[34] Sangita Gopal, associate professor of English at the University of Oregon and author of the book Conjugations: Marriage and Form in New Bollywood Cinema, notes that Veer's identity dies after 22 years and even after reuniting with Zaara, they are too old to reproduce.

[31] Varia too agrees that the shared heritage of the Punjabis is one of the film's themes, explored in the song "Aisa Des Hai Mera".

[33] Bharat and Kumar feel that Veer-Zaara and Main Hoon Na (2004), also starring Khan, accepts Pakistan's status as a separate entity from India.

[36] He feels that the central aestic pleasures of the films, especially Veer-Zaara, is the emphasis on border crossing as a "potentially radical act".

[35] She compares the last segment of the title song in which Zaara is shot to the climax of Mani Ratnam's Dil Se.. (1998); both films suggest that the lovers cannot be united.

[35] In her book Dreaming in Canadian: South Asian Youth, Bollywood, and Belonging, Faiza Hirji feels that cultural and religious differences were not acknowledged in the film, while noting Pakistani and Muslim traditions were highlighted.

[34] Veer-Zaara's soundtrack features 11 songs with music based on old and untouched compositions by the late Madan Mohan, as revised by his son Sanjeev Kohli.

[5][39] The vocals are provided by Lata Mangeshkar, Jagjit Singh, Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, Gurdas Mann, Roop Kumar Rathod, Ahmed and Mohammed Hussain and Pritha Mazumder.

[3] Veer-Zaara was highly acclaimed by critics, who praised the film's story, screenplay, dialogues, music, performances and sensitive portrayal of India-Pakistan relations.

[64] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average to films, it has a score of 67 based on five critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

"[66] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it 4.5 stars out of five and comments, "There's romance, there's a strong dose of emotions, there're songs aplenty, there's drama...

"[68] Subhash K. Jha gave Veer-Zaara a positive review for Indo-Asian News Service, praising the performances of the leads as "old yet passionate, frail yet sublime" and writes, "The surge of love between two people belonging to entirely different cultures and lands is collected into a quaint and quivering collage of memory and melody.

"[76] Vinayak Chakraborty of Hindustan Times, concurring with Mahesh, wrote that the movie "sticks to all the clichés that the Chopra camp has peddled down the ages," but concluded that it had "a strong script, good performances, and solid direction.

"[45] In another review for The Times of India, Teena Malik heavily criticised it in agreement with Verma for repetition of content, and labelled the film "horrifying".

"[79] Derek Elley of Variety observes that while it does not have "technique and production sheen" as recent Hindi films, Veer-Zaara's "in-depth star casting and thorough entertainment values" make it a "must-see" for Indian filmgoers.

[80] Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide wrote, "Though Chopra's film is emotionally extravagant even by the standards of India's epically unrestrained cinema, the star-crossed lovers bear the weighty metaphorical significance of their travails surprisingly lightly, particularly Zinta's radiantly lovely Zaara.

"[81] Jonathan Curiel of San Francisco Chronicle was particularly fond of the film, finding the movie experience "so arresting, its scenes so full of beauty and colors, that the three hours go by almost too fast".

He further noted that unlike other Hindi films, it deserves a wider audience for portraying "the humanity in characters who represent 'the other'", done "in a way that's dramatic, funny, fun, silly, musical, stylish, romantic and redemptive".

[82] Carrie R. Wheadon of Common Sense Media gives it four stars out of five and rates it as 11+, writing, "Those who watch can't miss the pleas for understanding and peace between India and Pakistan or the film's strong support of equality for women."

"[83] Manish Gajjar of BBC commented, "Veer-Zaara has a great storyline with some unpredictable twists and emotions, keeping you engrossed throughout.

[85] The film performed very well and raked over US$305K (₹2.55 crore) overseas, taking the total worldwide gross box office collections, including all the theatrical runs to ₹1.07 billion.