Reviews & Ratings for
लक्ष्य (2004)

Farhan Akhtar has become widely known name in Bollywood because of the coming of age themes of his films. The story of Lakshya might be a stereotypical story from failure to success for some,but the unversal nature of the story ,the quotient of relatablility has made the film a cult one. A young boy,Karan Shergill(Hritik) unsure about his life applies for Military Training in IMA,just because his friend applies for it. While his backs out even after being selected, Karan,unaware about life in the academy continues with the process and finds it extremely challenging. Life has never been easy for Karan with a demanding father, a successful brother and an ambitious girlfriend,Romi(Preity). His world comes crashing down when he flees from IMA. How he takes a decision to return to IMA and proves his capability to his family and Romi, is what the story is about.
The period of struggle in youth,the choice of carreer,the daunting spirit of sticking to a decision,the task of proving oneself to the world-all the tough circumstances that the twenties put us through,'Lakshya' presents those through the story of Karan. The heart-rending performance of Hrithik is what makes the movie shine. The strong supporting cast with a bevy of famous faces from bollywood is also a laudable aspect of the film.Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music,ranging from slow romantic hums to loud inspiring beats does a lot to build up the mood of the film.

Having watched this movie some 25-odd times I could talk about this movie over and over again.It is a Story of a guy named Karan Shergill who comes from well to do family and has nothing better to do other than to hang with his friends and enjoy all the luxuries of life hard earned by his father , Karan has nothing permanent in his life other than his love interest played by Preity Zinta who comes from an highly educated background is serious of becoming a journalist . Karan's seriousness towards his career in life could be felt and seen as he keeps repeating things heard from here and there and decides to join army inspired by seeing Anold Schwarznegger's action flick.As he joins the army against his family wishes his non-serious nature comes into limelight as he runs away from military academy, Seeing Zinta's reaction to this, he simply could not bear the pain and disrespect in their eyes and decides to go back and join the army again in order to win back the respect of his parents and Zinta. As soon as he passes from the academy he is posted to defend his nation for Kargil war where his regiment lead by Amitabh Bachan is given the task of vacating peak 5179 from intruders. The movie is a must watch with beautiful work of cinematography and locations of north India which will provide you a real warlike feel. The various war operations like briefing, patrolling and how wars are actually carried out are well defined and shot. The emotions of loss of fellow soldier, respect for enemy and importance of little laugh and goofing up at war-time for soldier is well taken care of describing what soldier goes through in those situations, the movie does not losses its hold in justifying its title and rightly depicts struggle of a youth for realizing an aim as anybody has to go through pain in realizing his/her potential and aim. Don't miss the scenes which depicts KARAN'S estranged relationship with his Dad that tells us in a very practical way that people are not like as they behave to us and the kind of time and attention they provide us. I would have gone with 4.5/5 for Farhan Akhtar's LAKSHYA but just because i could empathize with lead character well played by Hritik and wonderful instrumental track of "Seperation" & "Victory" .

Director Farhan Akhtar's one of the best directions include this at a very special place. The LOC kargil events of 1998 restored fictionally in the movie with necessary elements added to make the movie interesting just hits the fish's eye. Hrithik Roshan doing what he is known for by acting an immature youngster aimless and wandering in life to find a perfect aim finally turns into an intelligent and the most skilled Army soldier after several failures.
Apart from the Army theme, what this movie suggests is that an aim in life can change someone's routine so easily making him the busiest person in the world when he works hard to achieve what he strives for.
Hrithik Roshan, much known for his hot hollywood looks is able to shy away from that personality of his and get into a patriotism mode who is ready to shed anyone's blood to protect his motherland INDIA. Preity Zinta plays a role of a reporter in the later part of the movie after her virtual-break-up with to-be-soldier. She is cute and charming throughout the movie adding those small encouraging stuff to Hrithik for achieving his aims.
Other characters, Amitabh Bachan as the senior officer of the army who plans out the operations can be seen as the disciplined, strict, target oriented and a firm believer of the INDIAN soldier's capabilities fits himself perfectly to the role somewhat like Sunny Deol played in BORDER (keep aside those physical and execution part). The movie is worth watching it with all the patriotism along with the fiction added as a cherry to ever blossoming cake!