More interestingly, the love here is also that of a mother for her son, of a father for his daughter. Veera baby-talks to Mahabir, the way a mother would respond to her son's cuteness. She strokes his head when he sleeps, and she sings him a lullaby, making up itty-bitty staccato words to fit the tune she overheard him humming. (In contrast, the words sung by his mother, in the flashback featuring the lovely Sooha saha, are more free-flowing.) In some ways, Veera becomes the mother Mahabir has left behind, and he becomes the father she never had. When she runs away and returns after finding that she has nowhere to go in the desert, he instructs the members of his gang not to help her. "Apni marzi se bhaagi, apni marzi se bheetar jaayegi." And the next morning, she asks for permission when she wants to step out. This disciplinarian aspect of a father is also brought out when he asks her to dress properly. But elsewhere, when she gaily climbs a tree, he watches with worry from below. He buys her new clothes, which she parades before him. (She's like a child in a fancy-dress competition, with every state presenting the opportunity for a different look.)
And in a stunning sequence towards the end, Veera and Mahabir take turns being the parent. They find a cottage in the mountains. She orders him to stay outside while she tidies up the place and makes lunch. He steps out, then returns and opens the door cautiously - and this scene of a woman keeping house, the sheer domesticity of it all, is too much to bear. He crumbles. Hooda is extraordinary here. (And how nice to finally see him in a big film, where his performance will be seen by many.) Mahabir steps in, steps out, steps in, steps out, torn between wanting to enter this world and knowing that it's not really real, that it comes with an expiry date. He breaks down. She holds him. Shh... sab theek ho jayega. He cries out, Amma. She's a mother consoling a distraught child. And then, when he carries her to bed, the act doesn't carry a sexual charge - not even when she lies on top of him. She's like a little girl sleeping on her daddy's tummy.
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