Thursday, June 24, 2004
Lakshya – A brilliant movie
Karan Shergill (Hrithik Roshan) is a confused and a lazy person. He just can’t figure out what to do in life, but is pretty content with the material comforts that have been provided to him by his parents and relishes the company of a girl he loves, Romila Dutta (Preity Zinta). Romila however is a different person. A level headed girl who knows as to where she is headed for – the world of TV journalism. She constantly eggs on Karan to find some purpose in life, some sort of “Lakshya”. He initially believes that the army is his calling and joins the Indian Military Academy (IMA) to soon realize that the life out there is pretty tough. But after some minor hiccups in the beginning, Karan goes ahead in search of his goal.
He is posted in a regiment that is headed by Colonel Sunil Damle (Amitabh Bachchan), a person who is a source of inspiration to all his people in the regiment. Soon, the war breaks out and this regiment is entrusted with the responsibility of capturing a critical position Point 5179, which has been occupied by the Pakistan Army. The way the regiment goes about fulfilling this responsibility and in particular the role played by Karan who discovers that he has found his goal is best watched on the silver screen.
Lakshya is an out and out Hrithik’s movie. It’s primarily a story about his transformation from an easy going, careless, lazy youngster to a disciplined and a purposeful army officer. This kind of transformation calls for great acting and Hrithik lives up to it. Whether be his exchanges with his dad or in his relentless pursuit of his goal, Hrithik does it to perfection. The icing on the cake is his dancing skills (showcased in “Main Aisa kyoo hoon” & “Agar main kahoon”). This is a movie that he is going to remember for a long time to come.
Preity Zinta, an accomplished actress again puts up a lovely show and even though its not an author backed role ( like the one she had in “Kal Ho Na Ho”), does it comfortably enough to make this movie another feather in her cap. The rest of the cast right from Amitabh Bachchan till Om Puri (playing the role of a Subedaar) put in competent performances.
The first thing that strikes you about Lakshya is its top class photography. Never before has a movie captured Ladakh in such a beautiful manner as this movie does. Christopher Popp handles the photography in this movie with aplomb! Watch out for the mountain climbing scenes. They are simply special.
Apart from the photography, the background music is a big plus for this movie. Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy have done a commendable job out here with the right chords for the relevant scenes. Javed Akhtar returns to penning a story after quite some time and he has made up for this absence with this lovely story of a simple youngster set against a complex background of the Kargil war. In this way, the movie parallels a lot with Roja that dealt with a story of a simple woman set against the background of Kashmir insurgency. Roja was a classic and Lakshya too has all the right reasons for becoming a classic.
About the dialogues, one gets the feeling that the dialogues have been so diligently vetted that not even a single word looks to be out of place or in excess.
In a war movie or a movie that has a war has the backdrop, the Indian audiences have always been fed to a diet of patriotic movies that have a heavy dose of melodrama and jingoism. And this is where Lakshya differs from all these type of Indian movies that have been previously made. Instead of jingoism and heavy enemy bashing, there is patriotism and it’s absolutely bereft of melodrama. The enemy is neither bashed nor shown to be in poor light. Each and every frame in this movie looks perfectly natural and that’s why this movie is a class apart.
And the credit for all this should go to the director Farhan Akhtar. After coming up with a critically acclaimed stylish urban comedy “Dil Chahta hai” 3 years back, he dishes out this knock out movie now.
Karan Shergill (Hrithik Roshan) is a confused and a lazy person. He just can’t figure out what to do in life, but is pretty content with the material comforts that have been provided to him by his parents and relishes the company of a girl he loves, Romila Dutta (Preity Zinta). Romila however is a different person. A level headed girl who knows as to where she is headed for – the world of TV journalism. She constantly eggs on Karan to find some purpose in life, some sort of “Lakshya”. He initially believes that the army is his calling and joins the Indian Military Academy (IMA) to soon realize that the life out there is pretty tough. But after some minor hiccups in the beginning, Karan goes ahead in search of his goal.
He is posted in a regiment that is headed by Colonel Sunil Damle (Amitabh Bachchan), a person who is a source of inspiration to all his people in the regiment. Soon, the war breaks out and this regiment is entrusted with the responsibility of capturing a critical position Point 5179, which has been occupied by the Pakistan Army. The way the regiment goes about fulfilling this responsibility and in particular the role played by Karan who discovers that he has found his goal is best watched on the silver screen.
Lakshya is an out and out Hrithik’s movie. It’s primarily a story about his transformation from an easy going, careless, lazy youngster to a disciplined and a purposeful army officer. This kind of transformation calls for great acting and Hrithik lives up to it. Whether be his exchanges with his dad or in his relentless pursuit of his goal, Hrithik does it to perfection. The icing on the cake is his dancing skills (showcased in “Main Aisa kyoo hoon” & “Agar main kahoon”). This is a movie that he is going to remember for a long time to come.
Preity Zinta, an accomplished actress again puts up a lovely show and even though its not an author backed role ( like the one she had in “Kal Ho Na Ho”), does it comfortably enough to make this movie another feather in her cap. The rest of the cast right from Amitabh Bachchan till Om Puri (playing the role of a Subedaar) put in competent performances.
The first thing that strikes you about Lakshya is its top class photography. Never before has a movie captured Ladakh in such a beautiful manner as this movie does. Christopher Popp handles the photography in this movie with aplomb! Watch out for the mountain climbing scenes. They are simply special.
Apart from the photography, the background music is a big plus for this movie. Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy have done a commendable job out here with the right chords for the relevant scenes. Javed Akhtar returns to penning a story after quite some time and he has made up for this absence with this lovely story of a simple youngster set against a complex background of the Kargil war. In this way, the movie parallels a lot with Roja that dealt with a story of a simple woman set against the background of Kashmir insurgency. Roja was a classic and Lakshya too has all the right reasons for becoming a classic.
About the dialogues, one gets the feeling that the dialogues have been so diligently vetted that not even a single word looks to be out of place or in excess.
In a war movie or a movie that has a war has the backdrop, the Indian audiences have always been fed to a diet of patriotic movies that have a heavy dose of melodrama and jingoism. And this is where Lakshya differs from all these type of Indian movies that have been previously made. Instead of jingoism and heavy enemy bashing, there is patriotism and it’s absolutely bereft of melodrama. The enemy is neither bashed nor shown to be in poor light. Each and every frame in this movie looks perfectly natural and that’s why this movie is a class apart.
And the credit for all this should go to the director Farhan Akhtar. After coming up with a critically acclaimed stylish urban comedy “Dil Chahta hai” 3 years back, he dishes out this knock out movie now.
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