Although this movie has had several mentions, I felt it deserved one more:
Lakshya
Directed by Farhan Akhtar (the man behind Dil Chahta Hai and the more recent Don remake and its sequel), this is a story of an aimless young boy who finds his true calling as an Indian Army soldier when, following in his friend's footsteps, he casually registers to appear for the IMA's military exam. Here was a movie that chose to tackle the delicate and important subject of the feeling of aimlessness and career confusion faced by today's youth in the guise of a war movie. In an industry dominated by love stories and romantic comedies with formulaic plots and execution, this one was certainly a breath of fresh air in many ways.
It had an extremely talented team behind it. From the brilliant script written by the great Javed Akhtar who almost came out of a retirement of 14 years to write this film (the last film written by him being Main Azad Hoon back in 1999) to the eye-popping visuals by Christopher Popp which matched up to international standards. And although it had just five tracks, each of those was a memorable and original composition by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy unlike the hefty junk that gets churned out these days. And of course, who can forget the amazing background score, especially the one in the rock climbing scene (which the trio later reused as the title theme of Rock On).
Hrithik gave an amazing performance (and an amazing dance sequence as well which, back in the day, left many scratching their heads over how he did it) as did Preity. Amitabh Bachchan and Om Puri, in relatively smaller roles were highly effective as well as also were Hrithik's parents played by Boman Irani and Anjula Bedi. The film also had a very visible campaign with impressive trailers and song promos leading up to its release with the first trailer airing 3 months before the film's June 24 release date.
So why did it flop ? Why did such a quality film, made on a budget of just Rs. 32 crores lose money and ended up collecting only Rs. 23 crores when crappier films have earned more ? I guess a lot had to do with the film's second half which was criticized as being too war-heavy and war movies was something Indian's had had enough of courtesy J. P. Dutta's L.O.C. and some other efforts back in the day. The film's length I think was another issue; it ran at just over 3 hours.
On a personal level though, after viewing it multiple times, I feel the war sequences are actually the best part of the movie. I can only imagine the amount of effort that must have gone to recreate those as well as Hrithik's training sequences at the IMA. And the attention to detail in these sequences is really impressive for a Bollywood movie (and even more so for a decade old Bollywood movie). Its hard to believe this was directed 10 years ago; it still feels fresh as new and with the kind of movies being churned out, I believe this movie deserves a re-release.
Source for Images: I bought the DVD way back when it was released.