Lakshya; ''A journey from Nowhere to Epitome''. Review on Lakshya

When I saw the fonts of the name of this film I felt it itself suggests something. The first letter ''L'' is thinnest and last letter ''A'' is thickest and the thickness constantly increases from ?L? to ?A?. I understood its significance after watching the film. It symbolizes the journey of a very ordinary youth from status of joblessness and aimlessness to finding his aim and achieving it.

This film is again a very fine and mature product from Farhaan Akhtar(director) who gave us excellent film ?Dil Chahta Hai? in his debut directional film. It?s a clean and closer to real life product free from heavy and big dialogues which are inseparable part of Hindi war films, Its different from war films where hero is not unnaturally heroic. Rithik?s character is weak initially both emotionally and physically according to military standards but he grows slowly as the film progresses which happens with a common man who does not take birth as a hero as shown in other hindi films.

The story goes like this. Hrithik is a young chap just passed (I guess graduation, not clearly shown)

from college. He belongs to a rich family and so he has no tension of earning his livelihood. But his problem is what to do next. What is aim of his life? He depends on his friends for his decisions. He has an love affair with a career conscious talented girl (played by) Preity Zinta who is TV journalist. He just steps in army accidentally without much thought for the sake of getting into job. But soon he founds that he is not made for him. The hard realities of army life didn?t match with his past luxurious life-style. He even tries to run away from it, but he has to still continue in it to prove himself. And from here starts the making of hero which have a very realistic pace. His silent love-story is intermingled with his army-life in the back-drop of Kargil war. Ultimately he achieves his goal and also his love.

The story is well-written and scripted by Farhan?s father Javed-Akhtar who had a big contribution

to make Amitabh Bachchan superstar. Dialogues are crisp, simple and short still very effective to convey the intended message.

Film touches a lot of issues tangentially but penetrates every issue radially to its core. Like in a talk between Muslim Indian army men and a Pakistani army man, when the latter tries to woe former and former replies big NO to him. It shows that people of each community contribute towards well-being of country and are integral part of our country. Second issue it touches very beautifully is man-woman equality. A lot of pseudo-progressive men who declare themselves liberal are exposed when they are going to marry or in many cases after marry and the girl feels cheated. His(Priety?s finace) male-chavnist attitude and double standards that he refer as age-old culture of India is exposed. Preity Zinta plays very strong female character who refuses to be ordered by his fiancé and being treated as second-grade sex.

It also raises the issue of legitimacy of war, when preity questions why war at all, and an armyman bursts at her stating that this war (Kargil) war is forced on us and so inevitable.

Amitabh and Om-Puri has are not fully utilized but they played well. Amitabh?s dialogues and dialogue-delivery are a bit melodramatic. Rithik plays his character with soul. And Preity; she is wonderful. She still looks Liril fresh ( her ad-film). Her bubbly and vivid personality makes her character very strong. She is a droplet of water glistening on a flower. Other cast have also played there roles perfectly.

Lyrics again by Javed Akhtar are good. Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is OK but it lacks the magic of ?Dil Chahta Hai?. Background music supplements to the effect of the each scene in the film. Cinematography is excellent and nowhere gives the feeling of artificiality. In most of the film they have used real locations, layouts and places. Even they have used actual calendars, photos and others things used by Indian army. The rock-climbing scenes are adrenalin pumping. The place, events and methods used for military training are very realistic which make me remember ?Prahar? (by Nana Patekar).

It?s very difficult to find any flaw in this movie. It?s entertaining as well as sensible and logical.

Still I felt some small bugs in it. A person like karan (Hrithik) who have neither preparation nor extra-ordinary talent clears tough and competitive exams of army to get in. Dance-number by Hrithik have good robotic body movements but looks very childish and the song is not needed though its music is good.

The film speaks up itself quietly but firmly in each scene. Overall the film is scores in each category and so I recommend you to watch it.

ENJOY it !!!!!!!!!