This is one fabulous effort by Farhan Akhtar. No words can do justice to the kind of film he has crafted. He has only two movies under his belt, but Farhan Akhtar seems to have become a connoisseur in the art of filmmaking.
Lakshya - as you might be knowing already - is a story about the average young man of today?s India. The protagonist is unaware as well as indifferent about his tomorrow, his objective in life, his Lakshya.
Karan (our protagonist) has behaved according to his whims and fancies all his life, thanks to a wealthy father. He has never even thought for a single moment as to what he should achieve or pursue in life. When it comes to choosing a career for himself, which seems to be some inevitable thing to do, he chooses to join the Indian Army. This again, is one of his usual whims, which is further fuelled by the fact that Karan?s father is strongly against his decision and expresses so in a very animated manner. Nevertheless Karan proceeds to follow his half-hearted dream and manages to join the Indian Military Academy (IMA). Pretty soon it is evident to him that life in the army is not a cakewalk. It requires strong will power and determination to survive the training, leave alone the actual job of an army officer.
Karan?s rendezvous with his ladylove ? Romila - makes him decide to return to the army. But only this time, he is more determined than he ever was in his life. The training pushes Karan to the limits, hones him in the art of war and prepares the Gentleman Cadet into an officer after the long, gruelling sessions at the army school.
Lt. Karan Shergill is posted to the Kargil sector, where the situation soon turns rife, with Pakistani infiltrators occupying strategic hill positions. Being one of the officers on duty, Karan is assigned the job of regaining an important hill top back from the Pakis. This, he realises is the moment he had been waiting all his life. There is no looking back from here. He wades through all the difficulties and acclaims the peak.
The protagonist goes through a lot of mental torture, what with his comrades falling everyday to the enemy bullets. To make matters worse, his ladylove ?Romila- arrives at the war scene in the capacity of a news correspondent.
The mental turmoil that Karan goes through, his silent chemistry with Romila have been represented is a very subtle and exemplary manner. Hrithik Roshan plays Karan?and boy!!! has he done a good job or what? None other than Hrithik could have done justice to the character of Karan. This, arguably, is his best performance so far.
The story is ably supported by the supporting cast including great performances by Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta and Boman Irani (not his usual nutty self), albeit none of them have a lengthy footage. All members from the Punjab Regiment have been portrayed brilliantly. The cast is not star studded like LoC, but even then some actors have been wasted. E.g. Ranvir appears only in a song interlude, unless we were shown a limited version of the film.
The screenplay is outstanding with slick cinematography and an absolutely wonderful background score. The background music complements the visual delight of the rock-climbing scene fantastically. Talking about scenes, following moments in the film are must-sees for sure:
The one where Karan shows his Lakshya to Romila and silently emotes his grit is probably the ?shot-of ?the-movie?
The one where an armyman blasts out at Romila and her crew who are talking ?peace? in the middle of war.
The telephonic conversation between Karan and his father before Karan leaves for his mission is heart rendering.
When Karan meets Romila prior to his departure to the peak. Both of them emote their ?I love you? through their eyes.
These scenes take the cake for great screenplay as well as acting
Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy cease to amaze the moviegoer by providing award-winning music to the songs. It is next to impossible to assign a tune to the absolutely prose song Agar Main Kahoon. These guys have managed to make the song hummable. Especially the guitar is the Pièce de Résistance.
Choreography ? If you have Hrithik dancing to your direction, 75% of your worries are already taken care of. Since Hrithik enables the choreographer to be at his creative best, all the dance director has to do is justify his moves to the tune in order bring out the essence of the words in the song. Must say, it has been done pretty well in all the songs in this film.
All in all, Lakshya is a brilliant film, which succeeds in bringing out the patriotic fervour along with the intricacies of love and the father-son relationship.
Take a bow Farhan!