Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Cool!
Feels cool when the Hindu's review of Lakshya echoes the thoughts of my review.....
for instance, in this sentence,".....That it is marvellous without being obvious, patriotic without being jingoistic.."
and this one...
"...With its strong script (Javed Akhtar) this is one film that also has technical excellence. Cinematographer Christopher Popp shows Ladakh in a fresh perspective, evident even as the innocuous looking credits roll right at the beginning! His command over some of the scenes is particularly noteworthy - especially the ones with Lt. Shergill and his men climbing a sheer cliff to capture the intruders. Lakshya is probably the best of Hritik. His performance is nothing short of tremendous..."
and this one...
"...Music by Shankar-Ehsan-Loy is beautiful in parts, with songs not having a particularly special identity. But the scoring in certain portions expand ..."
feels really cool! :-)
Feels cool when the Hindu's review of Lakshya echoes the thoughts of my review.....
for instance, in this sentence,".....That it is marvellous without being obvious, patriotic without being jingoistic.."
and this one...
"...With its strong script (Javed Akhtar) this is one film that also has technical excellence. Cinematographer Christopher Popp shows Ladakh in a fresh perspective, evident even as the innocuous looking credits roll right at the beginning! His command over some of the scenes is particularly noteworthy - especially the ones with Lt. Shergill and his men climbing a sheer cliff to capture the intruders. Lakshya is probably the best of Hritik. His performance is nothing short of tremendous..."
and this one...
"...Music by Shankar-Ehsan-Loy is beautiful in parts, with songs not having a particularly special identity. But the scoring in certain portions expand ..."
feels really cool! :-)
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Lakshya – A brilliant movie
Karan Shergill (Hrithik Roshan) is a confused and a lazy person. He just can’t figure out what to do in life, but is pretty content with the material comforts that have been provided to him by his parents and relishes the company of a girl he loves, Romila Dutta (Preity Zinta). Romila however is a different person. A level headed girl who knows as to where she is headed for – the world of TV journalism. She constantly eggs on Karan to find some purpose in life, some sort of “Lakshya”. He initially believes that the army is his calling and joins the Indian Military Academy (IMA) to soon realize that the life out there is pretty tough. But after some minor hiccups in the beginning, Karan goes ahead in search of his goal.
He is posted in a regiment that is headed by Colonel Sunil Damle (Amitabh Bachchan), a person who is a source of inspiration to all his people in the regiment. Soon, the war breaks out and this regiment is entrusted with the responsibility of capturing a critical position Point 5179, which has been occupied by the Pakistan Army. The way the regiment goes about fulfilling this responsibility and in particular the role played by Karan who discovers that he has found his goal is best watched on the silver screen.
Lakshya is an out and out Hrithik’s movie. It’s primarily a story about his transformation from an easy going, careless, lazy youngster to a disciplined and a purposeful army officer. This kind of transformation calls for great acting and Hrithik lives up to it. Whether be his exchanges with his dad or in his relentless pursuit of his goal, Hrithik does it to perfection. The icing on the cake is his dancing skills (showcased in “Main Aisa kyoo hoon” & “Agar main kahoon”). This is a movie that he is going to remember for a long time to come.
Preity Zinta, an accomplished actress again puts up a lovely show and even though its not an author backed role ( like the one she had in “Kal Ho Na Ho”), does it comfortably enough to make this movie another feather in her cap. The rest of the cast right from Amitabh Bachchan till Om Puri (playing the role of a Subedaar) put in competent performances.
The first thing that strikes you about Lakshya is its top class photography. Never before has a movie captured Ladakh in such a beautiful manner as this movie does. Christopher Popp handles the photography in this movie with aplomb! Watch out for the mountain climbing scenes. They are simply special.
Apart from the photography, the background music is a big plus for this movie. Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy have done a commendable job out here with the right chords for the relevant scenes. Javed Akhtar returns to penning a story after quite some time and he has made up for this absence with this lovely story of a simple youngster set against a complex background of the Kargil war. In this way, the movie parallels a lot with Roja that dealt with a story of a simple woman set against the background of Kashmir insurgency. Roja was a classic and Lakshya too has all the right reasons for becoming a classic.
About the dialogues, one gets the feeling that the dialogues have been so diligently vetted that not even a single word looks to be out of place or in excess.
In a war movie or a movie that has a war has the backdrop, the Indian audiences have always been fed to a diet of patriotic movies that have a heavy dose of melodrama and jingoism. And this is where Lakshya differs from all these type of Indian movies that have been previously made. Instead of jingoism and heavy enemy bashing, there is patriotism and it’s absolutely bereft of melodrama. The enemy is neither bashed nor shown to be in poor light. Each and every frame in this movie looks perfectly natural and that’s why this movie is a class apart.
And the credit for all this should go to the director Farhan Akhtar. After coming up with a critically acclaimed stylish urban comedy “Dil Chahta hai” 3 years back, he dishes out this knock out movie now.
Karan Shergill (Hrithik Roshan) is a confused and a lazy person. He just can’t figure out what to do in life, but is pretty content with the material comforts that have been provided to him by his parents and relishes the company of a girl he loves, Romila Dutta (Preity Zinta). Romila however is a different person. A level headed girl who knows as to where she is headed for – the world of TV journalism. She constantly eggs on Karan to find some purpose in life, some sort of “Lakshya”. He initially believes that the army is his calling and joins the Indian Military Academy (IMA) to soon realize that the life out there is pretty tough. But after some minor hiccups in the beginning, Karan goes ahead in search of his goal.
He is posted in a regiment that is headed by Colonel Sunil Damle (Amitabh Bachchan), a person who is a source of inspiration to all his people in the regiment. Soon, the war breaks out and this regiment is entrusted with the responsibility of capturing a critical position Point 5179, which has been occupied by the Pakistan Army. The way the regiment goes about fulfilling this responsibility and in particular the role played by Karan who discovers that he has found his goal is best watched on the silver screen.
Lakshya is an out and out Hrithik’s movie. It’s primarily a story about his transformation from an easy going, careless, lazy youngster to a disciplined and a purposeful army officer. This kind of transformation calls for great acting and Hrithik lives up to it. Whether be his exchanges with his dad or in his relentless pursuit of his goal, Hrithik does it to perfection. The icing on the cake is his dancing skills (showcased in “Main Aisa kyoo hoon” & “Agar main kahoon”). This is a movie that he is going to remember for a long time to come.
Preity Zinta, an accomplished actress again puts up a lovely show and even though its not an author backed role ( like the one she had in “Kal Ho Na Ho”), does it comfortably enough to make this movie another feather in her cap. The rest of the cast right from Amitabh Bachchan till Om Puri (playing the role of a Subedaar) put in competent performances.
The first thing that strikes you about Lakshya is its top class photography. Never before has a movie captured Ladakh in such a beautiful manner as this movie does. Christopher Popp handles the photography in this movie with aplomb! Watch out for the mountain climbing scenes. They are simply special.
Apart from the photography, the background music is a big plus for this movie. Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy have done a commendable job out here with the right chords for the relevant scenes. Javed Akhtar returns to penning a story after quite some time and he has made up for this absence with this lovely story of a simple youngster set against a complex background of the Kargil war. In this way, the movie parallels a lot with Roja that dealt with a story of a simple woman set against the background of Kashmir insurgency. Roja was a classic and Lakshya too has all the right reasons for becoming a classic.
About the dialogues, one gets the feeling that the dialogues have been so diligently vetted that not even a single word looks to be out of place or in excess.
In a war movie or a movie that has a war has the backdrop, the Indian audiences have always been fed to a diet of patriotic movies that have a heavy dose of melodrama and jingoism. And this is where Lakshya differs from all these type of Indian movies that have been previously made. Instead of jingoism and heavy enemy bashing, there is patriotism and it’s absolutely bereft of melodrama. The enemy is neither bashed nor shown to be in poor light. Each and every frame in this movie looks perfectly natural and that’s why this movie is a class apart.
And the credit for all this should go to the director Farhan Akhtar. After coming up with a critically acclaimed stylish urban comedy “Dil Chahta hai” 3 years back, he dishes out this knock out movie now.
Monday, June 14, 2004
3 years after "Dil Chahta Hai"
3 years back, a movie came that symbolised primarily one word - cool. It was cool in every sense, cool in its story telling, cool in the way it was shot, cool in its dialogues ( How can one forget "Kya hua ? Koi Mar Gaya kya ?" ),cool in the music ( Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy are yet to match the high standards of music they have scored for DCH) and amongst all others, cool even in the protagonist's hair cuts.
Infact this movie perfectly symbolised the aspirations and the attitude of the "Yo generation" like no movie did before. The characters of Sid, Akash and Samir are deeply etched in one's memory that refuses to fade away...sharply etched characterisations like the ones in Yuva. It was tough to believe that this movie was the work of a first time director. The name of the director -Farhan Akhtar.
Even before he made this movie, Farhan assisted Manmohan Desai, cut a music video for Shankar Mahadevan's breathless and very surprisingly ( to me, atleast!) wrote the English lyrics for the "O Ri Chhori" song in Lagaan. After 3 years, he returns to tinsel town with another movie - "Lakshya".
Farhan describes this effort as an "Atypical war movie". A movie about a person finding himself after 24 years and 18,000 feet! ( This line used in the promo simply rocks!) The promos of the movie have already created a buzz with Hrithik showcasing his excellent dancing skills in "Main Aisa Kyon hoon" & Preity and Hrithik having a conversation through a lovely song "Agar Main Kahoon" ( that has the style of an American country song ). But the real part of the movie will lie in Farhan's handling of the Kargil conflict and of a character that has been given subdued importance in the promos, the character of Amitabh Bachchan. From the concept of a stylish, urban comedy to an atypical war movie, Farhan Akhtar has indeed come a long way. However it has to be seen as to whether he will be able to pull it off. Till then, have a look at this interesting profile of Farhan Akhtar.
3 years back, a movie came that symbolised primarily one word - cool. It was cool in every sense, cool in its story telling, cool in the way it was shot, cool in its dialogues ( How can one forget "Kya hua ? Koi Mar Gaya kya ?" ),cool in the music ( Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy are yet to match the high standards of music they have scored for DCH) and amongst all others, cool even in the protagonist's hair cuts.
Infact this movie perfectly symbolised the aspirations and the attitude of the "Yo generation" like no movie did before. The characters of Sid, Akash and Samir are deeply etched in one's memory that refuses to fade away...sharply etched characterisations like the ones in Yuva. It was tough to believe that this movie was the work of a first time director. The name of the director -Farhan Akhtar.
Even before he made this movie, Farhan assisted Manmohan Desai, cut a music video for Shankar Mahadevan's breathless and very surprisingly ( to me, atleast!) wrote the English lyrics for the "O Ri Chhori" song in Lagaan. After 3 years, he returns to tinsel town with another movie - "Lakshya".
Farhan describes this effort as an "Atypical war movie". A movie about a person finding himself after 24 years and 18,000 feet! ( This line used in the promo simply rocks!) The promos of the movie have already created a buzz with Hrithik showcasing his excellent dancing skills in "Main Aisa Kyon hoon" & Preity and Hrithik having a conversation through a lovely song "Agar Main Kahoon" ( that has the style of an American country song ). But the real part of the movie will lie in Farhan's handling of the Kargil conflict and of a character that has been given subdued importance in the promos, the character of Amitabh Bachchan. From the concept of a stylish, urban comedy to an atypical war movie, Farhan Akhtar has indeed come a long way. However it has to be seen as to whether he will be able to pull it off. Till then, have a look at this interesting profile of Farhan Akhtar.
Monday, June 07, 2004
The Globalisation Game
Businessworld, in its 4th June special issue talks about the way Indian companies are playing the Globalisation game. An inspiring issue, it sheds light on a lot of Indian companies (Example: Ranbaxy, Vedanta) that have already equipped themselves with the requisite ammunition to fight it out with other companies on a global scale and some others (Example: L&T, TVS Motor) that are in the process of doing so.
The entire issue boasts of some well written articles like the Mc.Kinsey article "Becoming a Global Champion", where in a framework of three critical steps are laid out for any company aspiring to become a global player or the article "Citius, Altius, Fortius" where in the Globalisation journey of some of the Indian companies has been charted out. Coupled with all this, if you have an article written by D.S.Brar detailing Ranbaxy's experiences and Businessworld's innovative methodology behind the ranking of Indian companies on the benchmark of "Global Competitiveness",what you have in your hands is truly a special issue.
An issue that turns out to be a must read for any person interested in the world of Indian business.
Businessworld, in its 4th June special issue talks about the way Indian companies are playing the Globalisation game. An inspiring issue, it sheds light on a lot of Indian companies (Example: Ranbaxy, Vedanta) that have already equipped themselves with the requisite ammunition to fight it out with other companies on a global scale and some others (Example: L&T, TVS Motor) that are in the process of doing so.
The entire issue boasts of some well written articles like the Mc.Kinsey article "Becoming a Global Champion", where in a framework of three critical steps are laid out for any company aspiring to become a global player or the article "Citius, Altius, Fortius" where in the Globalisation journey of some of the Indian companies has been charted out. Coupled with all this, if you have an article written by D.S.Brar detailing Ranbaxy's experiences and Businessworld's innovative methodology behind the ranking of Indian companies on the benchmark of "Global Competitiveness",what you have in your hands is truly a special issue.
An issue that turns out to be a must read for any person interested in the world of Indian business.
