Lakshya (2004 film)

2004 Indian film by Farhan Akhtar

Lakshya (translation: Aim) is a 2004 Indian Hindi language coming of age war drama film directed by Farhan Akhtar and produced by Ritesh Sidhwani. The film stars Hrithik Roshan, Amitabh Bachchan and Preity Zinta in lead roles. Based on a story by the director's father on the 1999 Kargil War, the film is about Karan Shergill, an aimless, lazy young man and the son of a wealthy businessman from Delhi, who joins the Indian Army and matures into a battlefield hero just as war breaks out. At the 50th Filmfare Awards, Lakshya received 4 nominations, including Best Director (Farhan) and Best Actor (Roshan), and won 2 awards – Best Choreography (Prabhu Deva for "Main Aisa Kyun Hoon ") and Best Cinematography. Though not a blockbuster at the box office, the film gained a cult following.

Karan Shergill (Hrithik Roshan) is an aimless, jobless, irresponsible young man living in Delhi who has no goals or plans for his future. His father, Sanjeev Shergill (Boman Irani), is a wealthy businessman, while his older brother, Udesh Shergill, is a successful individual living in America, but Karan is drifting along. Karan's girlfriend, Romila Dutta (Preity Zinta), also known as Romi, is a student activist and ask aspiring journalist, who tries to make him understand that he needs to have a goal in life. Eventually, Karan contemplates joining the Indian Army after one of his friends, Parvesh, announces that he will be doing the same. Although Parvesh gets rejected, Karan gives the Combined Defence Services Examination and gets selected into the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun despite his parents' disapproval. Karan's first days at the IMA are a disaster as his lack of discipline, overconfidence and laziness makes him unsuitable for the life of military education and training. Upset, Karan escapes from the academy, sneaking over the wall, and is forced to confront his parents' low opinion of him. Even though they force him to join the family business, Karan's parents are disappointed with the way their son has turned out, especially in comparison to his older brother. Karan's decision also causes Romi to angrily break up with him for not respecting his own choices. Devastated, Karan finally comes to terms with his situation and returns to the IMA, takes his punishment, and becomes a focused and disciplined cadet leader, graduating as Lieutenant Karan Shergill. Karan is posted to the 3rd battalion of the Punjab Regiment, commanded by Colonel Sunil Damle (Amitabh Bachchan). The battalion is stationed in Kargil, Ladakh. Karan returns to Delhi on leave and is heartbroken to learn that Romi is getting engaged to her colleague. He meets his parents as well but his leave is cut short due to an outbreak of hostilities in Kargil. He reports back to his battalion, where he is promoted to the rank of acting Captain. Colonel Damle briefs the officers on the latest situation and reveals that a number of infiltrators have crossed the Line of Control (LoC) from Pakistan and currently occupy a series of mountain peaks on the Indian side of the border. The battalion has been assigned to secure Point 5179, a crucial vantage point dominating the army's main supply line, the National Highway 1D. The northern side of the mountain is on the Pakistani side of the LoC, the western side has a 1000 foot vertical rock cliff and the southern side has 3 km of empty ground with no cover. Therefore, the battalion decides to attack from the eastern side of the mountain. The first part of the assault is successful. The battalion destroys the enemy's screening units with Karan cited for his bravery in saving another officer's life. Meanwhile, Romi gets stationed to Kargil as a war correspondent. Romi goes to Kargil where she meets a changed Karan and begins to fall in love with him again amidst the war. However, Karan remains reluctant to return her feelings as he is still under the impression that she is engaged. In the second phase of the assault, the battalion attacks the peak of the mountain but fails to capture it due to the strategic advantage and heavy weaponry the Pakistanis have. The unit suffers heavy casualties. Brigadier Puri summons Colonel Damle and gives him 48 hours to capture the peak – after that time period, responsibility for Point 5179 will be given to another battalion. Colonel Damle then orders a group of 12 officers and soldiers (including Karan) to scale the 1000 foot rock cliff on the western side of the mountain and flank the enemy stronghold. They will be provided with artillery support from the eastern side. Karan realises that he has finally found his goal in the form of capturing the peak. Karan also learns of Romi's failed engagement and expresses his feelings for her. Romi promises Karan she will wait for him whether he returns or not. The unit sets off on their mission and while moving through a grass field toward the rock cliff, they come under fire. The unit discovers a Pakistani mortar unit in the field and destroys it, but loses their commanding officer and a number of other soldiers. The team's radios are also destroyed, so they cannot communicate with battalion HQ. Out of the initial 12, only 6 remain. They decide to continue with the mission. They successfully scale the cliff and attack the Pakistani position during the night. Their assault is successful although Karan is injured, and the team loses three more men. The next morning, Karan limps to the peak, where he plants the Indian flag and fires a flare, signalling to Colonel Damle and Subedar Major Pritam Singh that they captured the peak. A few days later, Karan is shown to be leaving a military hospital and reuniting with his parents and Romi, who questions him what is his next goal after attaining his first one to which Karan answers "you" and the two embrace. The film ends with Colonel Damle paying respect to all the martyrs of Operation Vijay.

Production of the film began in Mumbai, Maharashtra and it was shot at several different locations in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. The scenes in Kargil were shot in Ladakh. Some parts of the film centered around Hrithik Roshan's military training were also shot at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. Actual Indian Army officers also participated in the shooting of the film. Seeing both the actors and officers in the same getup, at times Preity Zinta would get confused separating the actual officers from the actors. Pankaj Tripathi, then a struggling actor, shot for the film at Ladakh with Roshan and this news went viral in Tripathi's village that he is shooting a film with a big actor like Roshan. But Tripathi's role was all cut during the editing and he was very disappointed to see that his role was cut from the film.

The film's soundtrack was composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. Shaan's "Main Aisa Kyun Hoon", picturized on Hrithik, is a laid back, funky hip hop track. "Agar Main Kahoon" is the love duet, picturized on Hrithik Preity. The trio used harmonica for the track. The title track "Lakshya" is a techno flavored patriotic song by Shankar Mahadevan, which is followed by "Kandhon Se Milte", another patriotic song with the vocals of Kunal Ganjawala and Vijay Prakash. "Kitni Baatein", a pathos song, is crooned by Hariharan and Sadhana Sargam. There are two instrumentals, "Victory" and "Separation". The trumpet portion from "Victory" has been used as the background music for their logo by Excel.

Lakshya netted around Rs. 23 crore at the domestic box office. In the U. S., it performed better, grossing $380,000 on 59 screens [approx. Rs. 1.75 crore] in its opening weekend with the per screen average being around $6,440.

Lakshya was director Farhan Akhtar's second film, following the success of his first film, the cult classic Dil Chahta Hai (2001). However, despite much anticipation, it did not fare as well at the box office. Nevertheless, after repeated re runs on TV over the years, Lakshya has been regarded as a cult film among an audience that argues it is Hrithik Roshan's best performance to date.