Naksha

Plot

Youngster Vicky (Vivek Oberoi) lives with his mother (Navni Parihar). A lawyer shows up to speak with his mother about their father's old bungalow in the Uttarakhand hills. Vicky arrives at the bungalow and discovers a secret cache behind one of the photographs. And in the cache lies a replica of a map, made by his father who was once killed unlocking a mystery of treasure. Eventually some of his father's murderers discover Vicky, and abduct him. In the meantime, Vicky's mother visits the professor's first wife (Suhasini Mulay). The professor's son by this wife, Veer Malhotra (Sunny Deol), is a forest officer in Uttarakhand. Vicky's mother requests Veer's mother to seek Veer's assistance in finding Vicky and bringing him back. While thugs bring Vicky to Bali. As Bali is about to have Vicky executed, Veer drops in and rescues Vicky. Determined to obtain the map at any cost, Bali's men give chase to Vicky and Veer: the chase takes them through the dense jungles of Uttarakhand to the foothills of the Himalayas. They rescue Riya (Sameera Reddy) from a river rafting accident. Bali and his men capture Vicky and Veer, and slaughter the pygmies. Bali reveals that the map describes the location of a powerful device: the armour and ear rings of the mythical warrior Karna (of the Mahabharata). This armour will make the wearer invincible and all powerful. Vicky and Veer escape. Vicky and Veer arrive at the final destination, only to find that Bali has beaten them to it. Endowed with divine strength, the evil Bali easily overpowers Vicky and Veer and prepares to kill them. Vicky and Veer exploit the flaw to defeat Bali and restore the armour. They escape the temple just in time before it comes crashing down, thus sealing it off forever.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Pritam. The lyrics were written by Sameer apart from the song 'U n I' which was penned by Mayur Puri. The album consisting of 11 tracks was released by Saregama on 24 July 2006.

All lyrics written by Sameer (except where noted); all music composed by Pritam.

Response

People avoided the movie, primarily due to the showcasing of Vivek Oberoi and Sameera Reddy, as the leads; the semi-old guns - Sunny Deol and Jackie Shroff - still did the job. Taking a closer look, ignoring the small little vices and the movie holds a charm. The elevating factor of the movie is the sparkling personalities of the 3 main stars and how well they work off each other. It's not unlike the teaming of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in the Road pictures.

Critical

The movie received extremely poor reviews by most critics. The film's flawed story and performances were especially criticized. The sets and action, however, drew praise.

Box office

The film recovered its costs, despite being panned by the critics, which yet again proves the point that India is still a democracy, at least as far as the movies go - majority wins.