Source: Screen
The room was full of men in green and had it not been for the posters declaring the music preview function of Farhan Akhtar’s second film Lakshya, one would have assumed that it was an Army function in progress. The presence of the Generals, Majors, Lieutinents made up for a major part of the invitee list since the film is based on the army life, and for once the real-life heroes who protect our borders, were present with the reel-life ones.
The function, held on April 7, at a five-star hotel in Mumbai, began with Sridhar Subramaniam of Sony Music saying that the music company believed in forging relationships with good producers and “path-breaking” directors like Farhan Akhtar. “With Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, we have had a long association and they have come up with a good score in Lakshya,” he opined.
The trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy informed that the film had five songs, and two theme compositions — one on war and one on love. “This film called for a specific treatment of sound and we have tried our best,” Shankar said vaguely.
Producer Ritesh Sidhwani said that the inspiration to make Lakshya came from Javed Akhtar’s script. “It was Javed Uncle’s dream to make this film,” he revealed and continued, “Shooting for it was difficult, at the same time it was fun. For five months we were camped in Ladakh, braving the extreme climate, and before the schedule, for a year we were there to study the environment, so as to be well-equipped for the shooting. We got foreign technicians to do the action, and for the cinematography.”
For director Farhan Akhtar fulfilling his father’s dream seemed to be an exciting experience as was obvious from the satisfied look on his face. Sporting footballer David Beckham-like double pony-tail, complete with hair-clips, et al, he veered, “I identify with Hrithik’s (Roshan) character in the film. Like him, I too was a confused youngster sometime back, with no goal in life.” When asked if he found this subject serious as compared to his earlier breezy Dil Chahta Hai, and therefore a risk, Farhan replied, “The risk factor was not much of a worry. What mattered was that it was a story that really needed to be told. It’s not a war film, though Kargil is the backdrop. It’s about characters and the changes in a particular character. And I got a good cast who could successfully convey what I felt about the subject.” Amitabh Bachchan plays a pivotal role in the film, and Farhan said working with the superstar was “exhilarating.”
About the music of Lakshya he elaborated, “My father wrote the sequences which required special kind of songs. Full credit goes to my composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for understanding the need of the subject and coming up with a such an apt score.” Picking up his favourite song from the film, Farhan said it was ‘Main aisa kyon hoon...’, which has been choreographed by Prabhudeva. “It was simply chaotic shooting that dance number because everyone on the sets wanted to dance. At the same time it was fun because it was a treat watching Hrithik and Prabhudeva together,” he smiled.
Hrithik Roshan, looking dapper with a close-crop haircut, nodded in agreement, as he talked about the particular dance number, his first to be choreographed by Prabhudeva. Expressing his admiration for the South dancing sensation, he said, “He’s such an awesome dancer and the very thought of executing his choreographed steps made me feel edgy initially. But eventually we ended up having a lot of fun and the dance movements turned out to be simple.” When asked about Prabhudeva being called a “boneless wonder”, the actor retorted cheekily, “The wonder is that he DOES have bones.”
About his experience of shooting with the armed forces, Hrithik said, “When I was introduced to the army to do the homework for my role, I was ashamed of myself because I realised how ignorant I was about their life. I realised that a soldier is a perfect man. At the end of our shooting schedule, when all the soldiers came to me for my autograph, I felt something was wrong somewhere, and it was I who wanted their autographs.” These words were met with a thunderous applause from the army men present, as also the others in the audience.
Commenting on his new look in the film, Hrithik pointed out that a get-up definitely helps in initiating the actor into the character he is playing. “I drastically changed my look in the film, and Farhan had me sporting two different hairstyles, which helped me to portray the character and the changes he goes through convincingly. Also the new look was an inherent part of the script, where the cadet had to look like a soldier at the Indian Military Academy (IMA),” the actor explained. The tough part about the film, according to Hrithik, was doing those action scenes where he had to climb a cliff without a harness.
Javed Akhtar, who conceived Lakshya, and has written the script and the lyrics, gave a detailed insight into the film thus, “It’s about a young man who has no aim in life. He then stumbles onto a career in the army, and realises that he is not an island, but accountable to a society, to a country, and that makes him a man.”
The writer-lyricist had the attention of the audience with his enlightening and touching speech when he said, “The idea for the film came to me when I first visited Kargil with the film fraternity, and it left a deep impression on my mind. Later, I was the only civilian to be invited to Drass, and given the honour of laying a wreath at the Martyr’s Memorial. That was a great moment for me, something which I can relate to my grand-daughter with pride. My talk with the Brigadiers and the Colonols there gave me an insight into the army life which I wanted to convey to the common man, not just through a song, but with the help of a complete script. That’s how I wrote Lakshya.” Incidentally, the film marks the comeback of Akhtar to script-writing after a gap of 15 years....?Armaan?
When asked about the working relationship with son Farhan, for whom he has written the script for the first time, Akhtar wittily answered, “All along I had heard this saying that ‘Child is the father of man’. After doing this film I have realised how true it is.” He then went back to recall the similarities between him and his son, when he was of Farhan’s age. “I don’t know if I was like Farhan when I was young. But he is more sensible, and more focussed than I was,” the doting dad opined.
Akhtar expressed his gratitude to the Indian Army by saying that without its co-operation the film would not have been possible. Ruing the fact that only lip-service was being paid to the armed forces, the writer-lyricist elaborated, “In earlier days, atleast one person from the family joined the army. But today that’s not happening because there are so many other options, which are more lucrative. We want the sons of our neighbours to join the army, but not our own sons. Army is a way of life, but we think of our soldiers only at the time of war. Lakshya reminds us that we, especially the young generation, has to look at the armed forces as an option.”
The Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. NC Vij, who was present on the occasion, was then invited by Akhtar on stage to voice his feelings. The General expressed his happiness at the fact that good films like Lakshya were being made on the armed forces. “We like to encourage such films because they project the army as larger-than-life, and that definitely helps in drawing the common man to become a soldier,” he stated, “Lots of films have been made on the armed forces, but few of them have stood out like Bridge On The River Kwai and Saving Private Ryan in Hollywood, and Haqeeqat and Border in India. I hope Lakshya surpasses them all in success.”
Gen. Vij was then honoured with the presentation of a memento by Akhtar. Also present on the occasion were actors Sharad Kapoor and Raj Zutshi who play supporting roles, and Ronnie Screwala of UTV. Suchitra Pillai was the hostess for the evening and she conducting the proceedings with panache. An audio-visual presentation gave a sneak preview of four songs in the film.
Besides Hrithik Roshan, Lakshya stars Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta and Om Puri. Produced under the banner of Excel Entertainment, it is co-produced by UTV. The music of the film will be available in the stores from April 20.