Naga Shaurya and Ketika Sharma’s sports drama, Lakshya under the direction of Santhossh Jagarlapudi has hit the screens today. Let’s see how it fares.
Story: Pardhu(Naga Shaurya) who shares a strong bond with his grandfather( Sachin Khedekar) gets training in Archery sport from childhood. Eventually, Pardhu becomes a professional Archer and aims to win World’s Archery championship. What kind of challenges will Pardhu face in his journey? Forms the main USB of the film.
Performances: Naga Shaurya impresses with his ease in acting throughout the film. It is his screen presence what makes difference in this otherwise predictable drama. His look in the eight-pack abs is stunning and elevates two action sequences in the second half nicely.
Heroine Ketika Sharma gets a purposeful role and did her part quite convincingly. Instead skin show, Ketika tries to impress with her performance in a few crucial proceedings. But the chemistry between the lead pair is not showcased in a proper way.
Sachin Khedekar as Shaurya’s grandfather and Jagapathi Babu as the Archery coach in the second half are okay in their respective roles. Actor Shatru and other artists who did supporting roles did decent job.
Technicalities: Music by Kaala Bhairava is okay but would have been even better. While one montage song between the lead pair is audible, the background score for a few key scenes in the second half elevates the mood nicely.
The cinematography by Raam is nice as he showcased the entire film with a good texture. Editing by Junaid Siddique is fine.
Production values for this Asian Cinemas banner are good.
Analysis: Director Santhossh Jagarlapudi’s on paper idea of showcasing the glory of Archery is good but his presentation is filled with cliched narration. If he would have written a better version of screenplay, the result would have been surely better.
While Naga Shaurya gave his cent percent and did justice to the Archer role, lack of depth in the scenes and predictable narration comes as a major minus for the film.
To summerize, Lakshya is a Archery based sports drama that has good performance from Naga Shaurya but predictable narration dilutes the audience mood.