I went to the movie theater with high expectations because I absolutely loved DCH. That movie potrayed the lifestyle of todays youth/generation so marvellously. So much so that I could identify my lifestyle with that shown in DCH. That just shows the quality of the Director.
I was initially apprehensive of it being a war movie, but I was proved wrong. It shows the transformation of an aimless youth Karan Shergil ( Hrithik Roshan) superbly. It shows what a person can achieve if he has his goal in sight. Today’s youth can again identify to this role. The movie could have had Hrithik potraying any profession, and the message would have got through.
The story involves the coming of age story of Karan , who is an aimless, happy-go-lucky , good intentioned, rich Delhite. It also has Romilla Dutta ( Preity Zinta) who is initially the opposite of Hrithik. She is the firebrand student leader who becomes a correspondent of a leading news channel. Karan has no clue about what he wants to do in life. He is the 2nd son, and like all 2nd son’s he feels that his parents don’t love him, and really don’t care about him. Initially he applies to the IMA, just because he feels like it. Once he gets into IMA, he thinks its yet another big party !. After certain ’’Office and a Gentlemen’’ reminiscent scenes, he runs away. There Romilla ditches him because she loved him for his sincerity and honesty.
Spurred by this, he has a ’’lakshya’’ to prove his parents wrong, to show Romila that he is no aimless guy. The scenes for the ’’lakshya’’ song are shot superbly and show the hills of Dehradun like never before. This brings about the best war scenes in Indian film history. The first scene when they attack the bunkers is so reminiscent of ’’Saving Private Ryan’’, and I say this in a good way.
The cliff scenes with the guitar riff in the background is shot marvellously. Farhan Akthar has such good vision, he weaves the story with some great visual, background score, and hummable music.
Now I will come to the acting,
1) Hrithik Roshan - This is hand’s down his best role ever. I personally am not a big fan of his, but this has to go down as one of the finest acting performances ever in Bollywood History. The way he emotes with his eyes is just fantastic. The scene with the phonecall to his dad is so heartwrenching, that I was put to tears. The emotions in the song’’Kitni Baatein’’ where he doesn’t utter a word are fantastic. Hrithik should pick up such kind of tailor made roles more often.
2) Preity Zinta - Her hairstyles are hedious, but her acting is good. This is not the best she has acted, but goes to her scenes with Elan
3) Amitabh Bacchan - He does not have a big role, but there are few scenes where he shows why he is the best. The scene when he explains the History of the Regiment, the scene where he gives a speech to the soldiers before the mission, the climax scene. Also the fact that I share my surname to the role he portrayed might bias me towards his role !
4) Boman Irani, Om Puri - They do justice to their roles.
5) All the soldiers - They do their roles commendably.
Finally I will come to the star of the show
Farhan Akthar - He has come of age after this film. He shows that DCH was no fluke. He can tell a story so well, that if you imagine you read a book called Lakshya and imagined how the story would be, it would be the film ! He has shown both technical and artistic wizardry with this film. I won’t hesitate , I’ll say that he is currently the best director in Bollywood Mainstream Cinema, unlike the formula driven peers of his.
Finally I’ll say that since Lagaan, I did not like a single hindi movie in its entirety. There were some decent films, but no classics. I can safely say that I will put this film in that shelf along with Lagaan, DCH, Mr India, Sant Tukaram , Gol Maal, Sholay, Haqeeqat, ( My favourite Hindi Movies of all time)