Rituparno Ghosh of ‘Chokher Bali’ fame came up with his first Hindi movie ‘Raincoat’ starring Ajay Devgan and Aishwarya Rai.

Rituparno Ghosh belongs to that modern generation of Bengali intellectuals, who loves to create meaningful cinema. He is the director of many National and international award winning Bengali films. But this is for the first time, he made a film for National people. So there is a big curiosity and great enthusiasm among the cine-goers for his first Hindi movie. Already the film has started to generate craze at the foreign shore. Just on the basis of a rough cut, the film has been selected for the competition section of the 39th Annual Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 25- July 12) in the Czech Republic. And that is the only film festival ‘Raincoat’ will visit, before it is released worldwide in August.

Story: ‘Raincoat’, which deals with the relationship between two Bihari characters Manoj (Ajay) and Niru (Aishwarya), is set against the backdrop of a rainy afternoon. The story begins with Manoj leaving his mother to travel to Kolkata in search of job. The city holds a different platform of hope and opportunity for him. A hope to rejuvenate him, to lift him out of his financial crunch and an opportunity to meet his beloved (Niru), who is no longer his. On a rainy day in Kolkata, equipped with his friend’s old raincoat, Manoj sets out to visit his old love. Six years later two estranged lovers meet to play the game of words.

Told in flashbacks and smooth transitions between past and present, ‘Raincoat’ is a story of the love between two people that endures despite circumstances, despite separation and hopelessness. Narrated against the backdrop of a rainy afternoon, the raincoat literally becomes instrumental in bringing out the love, Niru and Manoj have nurtured within their hearts for each other since childhood.

Performance: Aishwarya Rai has gone in for the no-make-up look in this film. Actress Mouli Ganguly has been signed opposite Sameer Sharmadhikar in this film. Sameer has a special appearance in the film. Whereas Ajay Devgan is concerned, he entered into a profit-sharing deal with the producers to keep the production costs down. Director Rituparno Ghosh has written the whole script in Bengali. Since he is no adept in Hindi, then eminent play-writer Usha Ganguly has converted it into Hindi.

Overall: Ajay Devgan and Aishwarya Rai have been teamed up again for the fourth time in this film. Earlier they were paired together in ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’, ‘Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin’ and ‘Khakee’. People are eagerly waiting for the release of the film.

Set against the backdrop of the Indian Army’s skirmishes with Pakistani intruders in the heights of Kargil, Lakshya tells the story of Karan Shergill (Hrithik Roshan) and his search for his mission, love, honour, patriotism. Karan is born to rich and affluent parents, lives life not worrying about tomorrow. He has no clue what he wants to do and forever at the crossroads of life.

The only thing stable in his life is Romila Dutta (Preity Zinta), a bright, ambitious, young journalist. Romi, as she is known, loves Karan and believes that someday he will find his calling.

Here beings his journey.

A journey that will test Karan, physically, mentally and emotionally.

A journey that will stretch him far beyond his limitations.

A journey that will force him to make bitter choices.

A journey that he will start as a boy but will end as man.

Lakshya also Stars Amitabh Bachchan as Col. Sunil Damle, who transforms the boy into a man. The supporting cast includes prolific actors like Boman Irani, Om Puri along with Nawab, Prashant, Sharad Kapoor and Sushant Singh.

After ‘Dil Chahata hai’, Farhan Akhtar faces a gargantuan task as a director to meet the expectations of the audience. Like his earlier film, he lends the shades of his own personality to Hrithik’s character of a confused young man.

German-born Christopher Popp, who has served as the additional cinematographer on War Symphonies: Sjostakovisj, a Canadian-German co-production, handles the cinematography for the movie.

With Lakshya, Javed Akhtar makes a come back as a script writer after a hiatus of 15 years. Music of the film is composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

Lakshya -The Preparation

· 2 yrs of research and prep has gone into the script so that there are no mistakes in the facts used
· For the first time they had a consultant on the script to authenticate anything related the army. Lt. General Shankar Prasad and Colonel Subhash Chandra were there to make sure nothing was out of place regarding the army scenes.
· The hotel was prepared well in advance before the unit shifted there. 2 days were given for the entire unit to get acclimatized to the weather conditions because of the altitude.
· Special arrangements were made for heaters, portable loos, mobile tents and 500 cans of oxygen were made available. Other arrangements were made on international standards to make the international crew comfortable and feel like they are working back home.
· For entertainment of the unit considering they would be staying there for 3 and a half months- DVD players, TV, games etc was also organized for.
· A week long boot camp was organized for the actors so that they familiarize themselves on how to hold a gun, charging at an enemy bunker so that during the actual shooting with the army jawans they do not look out of place.

Lakshya -The Unit

A strong team of 350 who shot for 115 days at a stretch in the grueling climate of Ladakh.
A team of 10 foreign crew including DOP, the stunt coordinator, the special effects team, the make up person.
A definite look was given to all the characters- to play a character well you must first look like the character. If the character ends up looking like the star, then it’s just another film.

Garv revolves around the life and times of officers in the Mumbai Police Force. Spearheaded by Samar Singh (Amrish Puri), Arjun Ranawat (Salman Khan) and Hyder Ali (Arbaaz Khan), it also involves their ‘Special Task Force Team’.

In a city where corruption has become the order of the day and ethics a thing of the past, Arjun Ranawat and Hyder Ali, under the spirited guidance of Samar Singh, take up cudgels against the underworld and defy the dictates of the prescribed line of law, thus eliminating several of the ‘wanted’, under the line of fire. This result in creating a panic like situation for powerful people connected, not only to the power-center of Mumbai, but even beyond the national boundaries, resulting in a high tension, action packed drama. At the same time, Arjun Ranawat has a family crisis. His mother (Farida Jalal) and innocent sister (Akanksha) are targeted as a measure of revenge by the opposition. This is the last straw for Arjun. He becomes a law unto himself!

Shilpa Shetty, whose character is madly in love with Arjun Ranawat, provides the love element. Anupam Kher, Mukesh Rishi, Govind Namdeo, Anant Jogue, Mohan Joshi, Steven Fernandes and Hemant Birje head the list of the ‘tough ones’ besides several others, who form part of the huge star-cast assembled.