Lakshya (2004)

Lakshya Movie Trailer 2004

Crew

Directed by     Farhan Akhtar
Produced by     Ritesh Sidhwani
Screenplay by     Javed Akhtar
Story by     Javed Akhtar
Music by     Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Cinematography     Christopher Popp
Editing by     Anand Subaya
Distributed by     Excel Entertainment

Cast

    Hrithik Roshan as Capt. Karan Shergill
    Preity Zinta as Romila Dutta
    Sharad Kapoor as Maj. Vinod Sen Gupta
    Amitabh Bachchan as Col. Sunil Damle
    Om Puri as Subedar Maj. Pritam Singh
    Raj Zutshi as Maj. Kaushal Verma
    Sushant Singh as Capt. Jalal Akbar
    Parmeet Sethi as Pakistani Maj. Shahbaaz Humdani
    Boman Irani as Karan's father
    Lilette Dubey as Mrs. Dutta, Romila's mother
    Sanjay Singh as Capt. Manjit Singh Dhingra
    Aditya Srivastav as Lt. Colonel Pradeep
    Amit Behl as Company Commander (I.M.A.)
    Ranvir Shorey as Tarsem Singh
    Kushal Punjabi as Raj Tilak Singh
    Prashant Chainani as Capt. Vishal Srivastav
    Shakeel Khan
    Nawab Shah as Maj. Satish Babbar
    Abir Goswami as Capt. (Dr.) Sudhir Mishra
    Abhimanyu Singh as Adjutant Major Pratap Singh
    Ashok Kumar as Babulal
    Surendra Pal as a Commandant (I.M.A.)
    Parvin Dabbas
    M K Raina as Romila's Father
    Amrish Puri as Brig. Gen. Gautam Puri (Special Appearance)
    Aarav Chaudhry
    Randeep Hooda

Story

Karan Shergill (Hrithik Roshan) is a young man who has no goal or plans for his future. His father is a businessman, his brother is a successful individual living in America. His girlfriend, Romi (Preity Zinta), a student activist and reporter who espouses fashionable causes out of well-meaning sincerity, tells him he needs to find a goal in life. When a friend announces he is going to join the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Karan applies as well, despite dissent from his parents.

To his surprise, Karan gets selected (though his friend doesn't). But he is undisciplined and unused to the life there and keeps getting into trouble. Upset, he runs away from the academy, which causes Romi to break up with him. Karan finally comes to terms with his situation and makes his decision. He returns to the IMA, takes his punishment, and becomes a focused, disciplined cadet leader, graduating as an officer Lieutenant Karan Shergill.

Karan is posted to the 3rd Battalion of the Punjab Regiment, commanded by Col. Sunil Damle (Amitabh Bachchan) in the Kargil sector, and handles his responsibilities well. Karan comes home on leave and finds out that Romi is getting engaged; he goes to the ceremony to congratulate her. Karan is recalled to his post as his leave is cut short due to outbreak of hostilities in Kargil.

He reports back to his post where he is promoted to the rank of Acting Captain. His battalion CO briefs the officers on the latest situation. The battalion has been assigned to secure Point 5179, a crucial vantage point dominating the army's main supply line, the NH1D. 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 as war correspondent, where she meets a metamorphosized Karan.

Karan learns that Romi broke off her engagement. She tries to renew her relationship with him amidst the war, but this time Karan declines her. In the second phase of the assault Karan's unit engages in a failed attempt to storm and capture the Pakistani strongholds on the mountain. The Pakistanis have the advantage due to their strategic position and deal the unit heavy losses during the attack. Capt. Shergill and a group of 12 are next given orders to encircle the enemy position and attack it from behind. To do this, they must scale a 1000-foot rock wall. Karan realizes that he has finally found his lakshya (goal) in the form of the wall.

After the unit sustains an attack in a grass field and loses their commanding officer, the remaining men scale the cliff and attack the Pakistani stronghold during the night. The movie ends with Col. Damle looking out across the mountains the next morning, to see an injured Capt. Karan hoisting the Indian flag atop the ruins of the stronghold. Karan's father, who was sceptical and disapproving of him, is now proud of his son. Karan is given a leave following his condition, whereupon he and Romi reunite.

Did you know?

1. The highest crane shot ever done for a feature film was done on 13 October 2003 with a 24ft Giraffe crane at 17.796 ft above the Tanglangla Pass (17582 ft) in Ladakh, India.
2. 'Javed Akhtar' returns to scriptwriting in this movie after more than 14 years. Main Azaad Hoon was the last movie in which he wrote.
3. In the flashback scenes Hrithik Roshan is wearing a wig although he first claimed in interviews that it was his own hair and got away with it.
4. Arjun Rampal was offered the role of Jalal Akbar.
5. Aamir Khan was offered the lead role but he turned it down for The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey
6. Amar Singh managed to get the television channel office where Preity Zinta's character works in the film was set in the actual Sahara newsroom in Delhi. The entire space was vacated within a day's notice. The makers didn't have to pay anything for it, thanks to Amar Singh and Sahara, which is why Sahara and Amar Singh were thanked in the opening credits.
7. The vast majority of the non-speaking Army roles in the film were filled by real-life soldiers of 13th Battalion, The Punjab Regiment. (In the film, the unit portrayed is 3rd Battalion, The Punjab Regiment.)
8. The Drill Instructor at IMA, Subedar Srivardan, is in fact a real-life instructor who served in the senior-most/elite infantry unit in the Indian Army: The Brigade of the Guards.
9. This film portrays a fictionalized account of the actions of 3 Punjab. As the film does show, 3 Punjab was based in Kargil and was among the first of the units to detect the Pakistani intrusion across the Line of Control. However, they did not actually capture "Peak 5179" or any other peak. In actuality, much of the on-screen unit's actions are inspired by various other battalions' actions during the conflict. As the film credits the story as fiction based on fact and is largely truthful to the overall situation, the Army officially endorsed and approved the film.
10. When Hrithik Roshan was asked if there was anything about this movie that he would have changed, he answered that, in the second half, he would have changed Preity Zinta's hair, which he found to be awful.