Lakshya
Director: Farhan Akhtar
Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy; Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Year: 2004
Running Time: 3 hours 6 minutes
I want to join the Indian army. I want to
wear those very spiffy uniforms and learn to march those fancy choreographed
high steps. I want the simple comradery of good men and the starch discipline
it would bring into my soft life. I want to fear no danger and die with Jai
Hind (Hail India) on my lips. I want a woman pining for me at home with tears
in her eyes as I march solemnly off to war. I want a chance to give speeches
of bravado about protecting the sacredness of the Indian soil and the enemy’s
dastardly treachery. I want to be able to gaze with clinched jaw at a far
off mountain peak and say that recapturing it is my Lakshya (objective).
Instead, I work for a bank and there are so few chances to do any of these
things in banking – no uniforms, no speeches, no women pining – only crowded
subway rides to work, redundancy and lots of clock watching. Is it too late
for me to join up I wonder?
This part Bollywood, part recruitment film delves into the same subject matter
of the recent “Line of Control” but with much better results. While LOC was
at times a painfully nationalistic regurgitation of the events of Kargil
(a 1989 mini-war between India and Pakistan), Lakshya takes a much more personal
and relatively subtle viewpoint as it focuses on the story of one man and
what brought him to this point in his life. It is by no means a layered objective
look at the conflict (my guess is that would be met with death threats and
box office disaster), but it at least keeps the jingoism secondary to the
human story that is partly a love story but primarily one of a man finding
himself. And where he finds himself is in the Indian army.
Hrithik Roshan is a complete slacker, the product of little discipline, too
much privilege and no ambition. He has just completed college and has no
idea where to go next and isn’t particularly worried about it. His wealthy
parents prod him to do something with his life, but sleeping late and being
pampered by their household of servants is much too comforting to depart
from. With his hair combed straight down over his forehead and a constant
look on his face that approaches idiocy, Hrithik does his best to emulate
a state of languidness – but in truth not very successfully – instead of
displaying the wonderful ennui of Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate”, Hrithik
more approximates his mentally deficient character in the film “Koi Mil Gaya”.
His girlfriend, Preity Zinta, is the exact opposite – she knows exactly what
she wants – to be a journalist and sets out after finishing school to reach
that goal. To play younger than she is, Preity also mangles her hair into
a retched mess of curls that only makes her look older – as soon as the curls
vanish and we have Preity back I gave a sigh of relief – no more perms for
Preity, please!
Because a friend decides to go to military school, Hrithik joins up as well
much to his parent’s opposition – but soon learns that sleeping late is a
no-no and he doesn’t have the requisite toughness to make a go of it. He
leaves but when Preity learns what he has done she gives him the heave-ho
and with his face set in steely resolve he returns with new determination
to finally do something on his own. Upon graduating, his first post of duty
is set in the breathtaking picturesque high mountains of Kargil that sits
on the border that separates Kashmir into it’s Indian and Pakistani pieces.
The air is brisk, the company is manly, snow caps the far off peaks and soon
Pakistani’s cross the Line of Control and occupy the mountaintops from which
they can lob down shells on the roads below. Under the resolute command of
Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik’s division is ordered to take back the highest
peak of them all – and no guessing who turns up as a television reporter
on the front lines or who the war hero turns out to be.
As the follow up to the monster hit, Dil Chahta Hai, Laksyha is an interesting
and surprising choice for director Farhan Akhtar. DCH was a low-key film
about male friendship that to a large degree avoided clichéd melodrama
and felt very modern and Western to most viewers, but Lakshya takes on this
overwrought melodrama like unneeded ballast that doesn't allow the film to
rise above its simplistic plot. In its three hour running time it never manages
to flesh out any of the characters besides Hrithik’s and never instills any
of the relationships – his with Preity, with his parents or with his fellow
soldiers - with any warmth or depth of feeling – it all feels by the numbers
and mandatory. One of the few moments that really is emotionally effecting
is when Hrithik calls his father up and pours out his feelings about letting
him down – but this is almost circumstantial emotion – he is going off on
a dangerous mission with little chance of survival and this may be the last
opportunity he gets to tell his father how much he loves him – easy stuff
to wring emotion from – though Hrithik nails it wonderfully well. In fact,
once Hrithik comes to manhood he is very good and likable and almost gets
away with turning this standard material into something memorable. In the
end though one never feels invested in the characters and most of the entertainment
value of the film comes from the songs and the action.
The songs are fairly good, but what one remembers most from them is Hrithik’s
dancing. It just gets better and better. From his first film, his dancing
has always been a standout – especially among the other flatfooted male stars
who usually look awkwardly reluctant to be doing it – but initially his dancing
struck me as more physical than graceful, but he moved it up a notch in Koi
Mil Gaya with a Gene Kelly like number and here he performs some difficult
moves that are really fun to watch. The action consists primarily of two
scenes – one of the division attacking the Pakistani positions which is somewhat
confusing but at the same time powerful in its ineffectiveness and then a
mountain side scaling that had my heart somewhere up in my throat.
My rating for this film: 6.5