I saw ’’Lakshya’’ a few weeks ago and wanted to collect my thoughts in a proper manner before I reviewed it. So, here it is folks.
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If ’’Lakshya’’, the second film from Farhan Akhtar & Co. after the brilliant DCH, were judged solely based on the merits of an artist truly exemplifying versatility, then it would be an outright masterpiece. Sadly, that is not the case. While ’’Lakshya’’is a brave and bold attempt by Farhan Akhtar to explore new horizons in Hindi cinema, it falls somewhat short of the mammoth expectations that came with it. Before I make my criticism, let me start with the positive aspects of ’’Lakshya’’.
First and foremost, Farhan Akhtar should be commended for treading a truly different path with his second venture. While directors in Bollywood today boast that they are indeed taking a different route in their films, most of them regurgitate their prior successive formulas, give it a fresh twist, and dupe the audience into thinking that they’re actually watching something new and unique. - (example: Sooraj Barjatya, Karan Johar, Subhash Ghai and host of others) Farhan Akhtar, however, shows us that he’s definitely on the other end of the spectrum with ’’Lakshya’’ - in a class of his own. ’’Lakshya’’ is as different from DCH as chalk is from cheese. Just for that, Farhan deserves a world of credit for choosing the subject he displays in ’’Lakshya’’. The topic of war isn’t an easy one to handle but Farhan gives it his all, and while he doesn’t get it spot-on, Farhan, as a director, is definitely here to stay.
The film starts with Karan Shergill (Hrithik Roshan), a carefree and fun-loving individual who lives for the moment a la Akash (Aamir Khan’s character from DCH). The ambitions for the future that his friends, his parents, and his girlfriend (Preity Zinta) inflict upon him causes Karan to think twice about his perspective on life. Karan joins the army, at first, to prove to his loved ones that he can succeed in life. When he escapes after a few missteps with his unit, Karan comes home only to be shunned by his parents and Romila (a scene I could not digest). Karan goes back to the army and in the process, discovers himself, his relationships with his loved ones, his outlook on war, and ultimately, his ’’Lakshya’’in life.
The first half of ’’Lakshya’’ is absolutely engrossing - as good as Hindi commercial cinema gets. This is where you see the definite stamp of Farhan Akhtar. It is quite obvious now that Farhan is easily among out finest filmmakers when it comes to depicting human relationships. We saw it in DCH and now we see it again in ’’Lakshya’’. Whether it is Karan’s relationship with his father, his relationship with Romila, or even his relationship with his friends, Farhan nails each and every scene in the first half with utmost conviction. In contrast, the second half of ’’Lakshya’’, with Karan in the army, pales with its repetitive scenes of war, tedious dialogues and performances and a predictable ending to boot. After a wonderful first half, Farhan slowly loses his grip on the proceedings post-interval. Javed Akhtar’s tepid script doesn’t help matters.
’’Lakshya’’ belongs to the one and only Hrithik Roshan. Whether it’s enacting his early scenes as a college prankster to his scenes as a deeply affected, caring, matured individual, Hrithik turns in an exceptional performance - and that’s another problem ’’Lakshya’’ suffers from. While Hrithik turns in a great performance, the rest of the cast deliver mediocre performances. I have never thought of Preity Zinta as an exceptional perfomer and she didn’t exactly disprove my theory there.
Preity plays Pretty in ’’Lakshya’’. It’s as simple as that. She is yet to achieve anything substantial in her filmography. The rest of the cast (Boman Irani, Amitabh Bachchan, Om Puri, Sushant Singh, etc., ) doesn’t fare any better, surprisingly. Disappointing to say the least as DCH had several memorable performances apart from the three excellent male lead performances. Christopher Popp’s camerawork is solid for the most part, but when the war scenes come around, Ravi K. Chandran is sorely missed. Anyone who’s seen Chandran’s camerawork for the war scenes in Mani Ratnam’s ’’Kannathil Muthamittal’’ definitely know what I’m talking about.
Popp’s hazy camerawork during these scenes resemble J.P Dutta’s work in LOC - a film I found truly repulsive, harmful and clearly one of the worst films that Bollywood has associated itself with. That is the only similarity these two films share - fortunately. ’’Lakshya’’ is a far superior film to LOC. Editing is choppy to say the least. Where was Sreekar Prasad? Why did Farhan employ this new editor who could have done something with the prolonged, unnecessary scenes in the second half? Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy impresses with the songs of ’’Lakshya’’ but fails to make any kind of an impact with the background music.
It’s loud and jarring in several instances and dilutes several scenes to a heavy extent. Even with all of the problems ’’Lakshya’’ has, Farhan Akhtar is undoubtedly improving. One can only hope Farhan grows stronger as a filmmaker from here on out.