A Hindi film in an Indian theatre comprising a Pakistani audience... the ambience could not have been more perfect for the screening of "Veer Zaara", director Yash Chopra's ode to love between a Pakistani woman and an Indian man.

There was clapping and singing, critical comments and some dancing too Wednesday night when about 300 players and officials from Pakistan, who had come here for the Punjab Games between the two countries, crowded into the Phul theatre to watch the latest Bollywood blockbuster.

That the romance deals with lovers on either side of the Punjab, partitioned between India and Pakistan, gave the occasion an added edge.

Pakistan Punjab team official Safdar Ali said it was the first Hindi film in which he had not seen "Pakistan bashing".

"Earlier films used to spit fire on Pakistan and its nationals were always portrayed as villainous characters," he said.

Ali said the Shah Rukh Khan-Preity Zinta starrer showed greater understanding about the meaning of love on both sides of the border.

For the Pakistanis, it was indeed a special moment. Bollywood films are enormously popular in the country but are banned and movie lovers have to resort to VCDs and DVDs to watch them.

"Watching Indian films in a theatre is a new experience," said Afzal from Lahore, who like many others tracks Hindi films by renting VCDs.

Cyclist Imran said "Veer-Zaara", about an Indian Air Force officer in love with a Pakistani girl whose father is an aspiring politician, was a movie of love and there couldn't be a better time to release it than the present when there is a thaw in relations between the two countries.

Athlete Mohammed Arshad said it was a good, clean film and would further the cause of improving India-Pakistan relations.

Others like volleyball player Mukhtar weren't too impressed.

"I would have instead preferred a Sunny Deol film with a lot of fighting. This film does not have even a single fight scene," he said.

That apart, there was plenty of hooting and cheering all through the film.

The bus rooftop song sequence between Shah Rukh and Preity drew the maximum applause from the Pakistani audience, which clapped all through.

And when famous Punjabi singer Gurdas Mann briefly appeared in the song with bhangra dancers, the noise inside the theatre was deafening with some of the players even getting up and doing an impromptu jig in the aisles.

Then Hema Malini, long known as Bollywood's dream girl and who continues to be one of Hindi films' biggest stars, came on and a roar went up in the audience.

Through all the shouting and the celebrations, Pakistani players clicked wildly capturing in their cameras images from the film. The hot favourite seemed to the sequence when the dashing hero carries the heroine in his arms over a bridge.

In the reel story, Veer Pratap Singh romances Zaara Hayat Khan - Yash Chopra's effort to bridge the divide between India and Pakistan. In real life, something similar was happening at the Phul theatre Wednesday night.