Lakshya: Farhan misses target - The Times of India

Film: Lakshya
Director: Farhan Akhtar
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, Amitabh Bachchan
Rating: **

At 18,000 feet, overtly patriotic soldiers go for a battle lip syncing, dancing, back slapping. Among them are a Sikh and a Muslim, who you know will die before the end. But before he succumbs, the Muslim gets to tell the Pakistanis, “I am an Indian first, a Muslim later.”

Just some of the Bollywood clichés you have learnt to live with. Except that it’s hard to reconcile to such triviality when it comes from Farhan Akhtar, considered the ultimate symbol of cool in Hindi filmdom.

And you can tell how misdirected the effort is if an actor like Hrithik hits such a low, carrying on his Koi...Mil Gaya act into Lakshya , mistaking confused with demented.

His character Karan Shergill is a rich brat with no ambition in life. His girlfriend, the go-getting Romila (Preity Zinta), is a complete anti-thesis. Among his college group, Karan sticks out for his lack of purpose in life, as others decide on options like MBA and engineering (after graduation? That’s a new).

Watching an Arnold Schwarzenneger film, Karan decides to join the army, only to run away within a week. Romila dumps him over his indecision, spurring him to return to the Indian Military Academy, an almost implausible proposition!

The heartbreak and the academy’s strict regimen make a man out of the youngster, who finds himself in the thick of action in Kargil soon after. And the death and destruction there give the man a mission – to conquer one of the last and toughest peaks. Meanwhile, Romila, now a journalist, is also there covering the battle and the unfulfilled love grows further.

The coming-of-age premise against the Kargil setting is a new one in Bollywood, but Farhan seems to be grappling with a subject he’s out of touch with. Hrithik’s acting as the confused Karan is so out of place, it seems like a repeat of his child-man act in his previous film.

Despite snazzy hairdos and accessories, he looks anything but hip. There seems to be such an effort to create Preity’s character, with a professor mom and newspaper editor dad; that the labour shows.

Farhan’s tries to do an understated style in a Bollywood set-up and it doesn’t work, with the conflict among the characters not coming across. Neither is there any match between Karan and Romila during their earlier romance. On top of it, there are maudlin bits; Karan weeps each time he sees Romila’s picture, even while he’s among others. The soldiers too are glorified.

On the upside, Farhan had handled the war fairly well (barring some staple truisms). The highlight of the war scenes is the one in which Karan and his team climb a very tough terrain. The film really picks up after the transformation in Karan, but by the time, with several songs and lapses, it's too late.

Farhan’s refreshing touch which was evident in DCH is partly diluted also by the screenplay by this father Javed Akhtar.

Maybe, he needs to set his Lakshya right.