Lakshya (2004)

An aimless, jobless, irresponsible grown man joins the army and matures into a battlefield hero.

Director:

Farhan Akhtar

Writers:

Javed Akhtar (dialogue), Javed Akhtar (screenplay)

Stars:

Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta

Top Rated Indian Movies #116 | 3 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Amitabh Bachchan	...	Col. Sunil Damle
Hrithik Roshan	...	Karan Shergill
Preity Zinta	...	Romila 'Romi' Dutta
Om Puri	...	Subedar Maj. Pritam Singh
Sharad S. Kapoor	...	Maj. Binod Sengupta (as Sharad.S.Kapoor)
Raj Zutshi	...	Maj. Kaushal Verma
Sushant Singh	...	Capt. Jalal Akbar
Prashant Chianani	...	Lt. Vishal Srivastav (as Prashant Chainani)
Shakeel Khan
Ranvir Shorey	...	(as Ranvir Shoerey)
Arav Chowdharry	...	Capt. Manjit Singh Dhingra
Ajai Jose
Aditya Srivastava	...	Pradeep
Abir Goswami	...	Capt. Sudhir Mishra (AMC)
Parmeet Sethi	...	Maj. Shahbaaz Humdani (Pakistan)

Storyline

Karan is a lazy good-for-nothing who lives on the generated income of his father and elder brother at their family business. Karan's days: hang out with buddies and romance a woman named Romi. When he watches an action movie, he decides to enlist in the army with a friend, but basic training proves to be too much of a bother and he shortly abandons it, thus making him lose respect on the home front. Romi also stops respecting him. Karan decides he must re-join the army and show his family and Romi that he, too, is focused upon the path he has to take in this lifetime, but will he be resilient enough to carry out this task?

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Plot Keywords:

army | military academy | mountain | basic training | terrorist | 

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Taglines:

It took him 24 years and 18000 feet to find himself

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Romance | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [India] (English)

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi English

Release Date:

18 June 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mut zur Entscheidung - Lakshya

Filming Locations:

Dehradun, Uttar Pradesh, India

Box Office

Budget:

INR 300,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

INR 118,650,000 (India), 25 June 2004

Opening Weekend USA:

$139,000, 25 June 2004, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$752,344, 25 July 2004

Company Credits

Production Co:

Excel Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

186 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital Dolby SR

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Adhuna Akthar who did the hair styling for the film recalls a harrowing time the first day of the shoot when Preeti Zinta's wig began to expand due to the wind and temperature. At the end of it, both Preetiy Zinta and she were in tears, but they managed to make the look work somehow.

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Goofs

When Hrithik Roshan receives a letter from his friend while in Kargil and is interrupted by his fellow senior officer, he puts the letter in his right pant pocket, but when he remembers about the letter later on, he removes the letter from his left pant pocket.

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Quotes

Subedar Maj. Pritam Singh: People tell us that war is bad. I ask them, "Who knows this more than a soldier?"
Karan Shergill: Then why have wars?
Subedar Maj. Pritam Singh: Sir, the Almighty made only one Earth, but Man's greed divided it. This became mine, that became yours. I'm glad the moon is up in the sky. We would have cut it to bits had it been down here.

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Connections

Referenced in Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019)

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Soundtracks

Agar Main Kahoon
Performed by Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik
Music composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, with lyrics by Javed Akhtar
© 2008 Sony Bmg

User Reviews

A must watch movie and yet another masterpiece from Farhan Akhtar...

The movie is all about having a LAKSHYA (aim) in our lives. It would'nt be inappropriate at all to comment that this film in one way points out at today's indecisive youth who are not clear about what they are going to do of their lives, and change their focus every now and then.

The story is about Karan (Hrithik Roshan) who is very talented but utterly confused about his future. Rather his girlfriend Romila (Preity Zinta) has since the very beginning ambition of being a news channel correspondent. Karan's indecisiveness widens the gap between him and his father (Boman Irani) who expects nothing from his son and the same thing ultimately results in his breakup with Romila too. This changes Karan's life and he gets determined of getting in the army and passes out from the IMA (Indian Military Academy) with a very enviable record. At the same time Romila too becomes a successful news channel correspondent. But both of them don't know what their futures has in store for them. They meet again after the turmoil in Romila's life from a broken engagement and this time the backdrop is the picturesque Kashmir valley and the event being the Kargil war. Karan has been deputed there as an army officer and Preity comes for a live coverage of the war. The story now flows ahead with the attempt of Indian forces to get back peak no.5179 from the Pakistani forces and the intersection of Karan's and Romila's lives at many instances acting as the currents. The ending is predictable but yet you would love to watch it.

The movie is yet another masterpiece from Farhan Akhtar,the Director after the tremendous success of "Dil Chahta Hai". This is also yet another testimony of Javed Akhtar's writing prowess. The lyrics and dialogues are superb. Moreover the choreography (Prabhu Deva) and photography (Christopher Popp) are worthy of praises. Hrithik Roshan gives another flawless performance after "Koi Mil Gaya". Another attraction is Colonel Sunil Damle (Amitabh Bachchan). Amitabh Bachchan gives those dialogues a beauty and charm which is so characteristic to himself. Preity Zinta is good in her role too. You can't pinpoint anybody or anything specifically as that would diminish other's efforts as all of them have performed commendably. The backdrop of Kashmir valley and the Himalayas has been so beautifully captured in the frame. Also the war scenes look so much authentic which is very tough job to do. The running time of the film is above 3 hours but you can't realize that ( you can't help it as you get fully engrossed in the film.....). Hrithik's dancing skills are unveiled so beautifully yet again. He can easily claim to have a rubber body--so flexible,so much in tune with the rhythm. Good music from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy trio once again. Actually i could'nt think of any flaw in the movie as every aspect has been given it's due attention.

I would claim it to be a must watch movie and rate it a hefty 8.5/10