The concept of ambition has long been the cornerstone of Hindi cinema. Either characters have important jobs or careers are a footnote in the plot. Most stories sway between the broader and more mainstream emotions: rousing, poignant, motivational or heroic.
But there is a field beyond the righteousness of this genre. This list will meet you there. I like movies that treat ambition as a means more than an end; like Baazigar, where the antihero uses ambition and nepotism as a ladder to climb the steps of generational revenge. Like Saathiya, where the idealism of love and the practicality of ambition in Mumbai keep clashing. On that note, here are five Hindi films that subvert the notion of ambition without straying too far from the basics.
Farhan Akhtar’s sophomore feature is an undervalued ‘war’ movie. It may seem like the most conventional entry on this list; an aimless dude is dumped by his girlfriend, shamed by his dad, and he straightens up to become a hero during his military training course. But Lakshya also uses patriotism as a device to deconstruct the pressures of upscale ambition. Hrithik Roshan’s Karan Shergill starts as a lazy and privileged drifter, but he discovers the concept of ‘mattering’ and self-respect by accident; the career he chooses on a whim turns him from boy to man.
The slick action sequences aside, it remains an extremely watchable and strangely intimate film about making a difference; the uniform one wears is almost incidental. In an era of conformist filmmaking, Akhtar’s Lakshya dares to tackle the burden of being young in a society full of expectations and social hypocrisies.
As recent history has taught us, there’s nothing like the rage and musicality of India’s youth. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s revolutionary Bollywood drama about a group of unserious Delhi students who get inspired by freedom fighter stories and find purpose in dissent may feel all too familiar. But it remains a film of its time and beyond, reflecting the crisis of a culture that often dilutes the very meaning of justice for the kids who define its future.
The young protagonists of the story are not inherently ambitious, but what they are left with is the battle for the right to be ambitious in a country that refuses to acknowledge them. The only patriotic friend among them is killed by systemic neglect, and the students have no choice but to poison their own manner of protest. They refuse to become a tragedy of a nation that threatens to reduce them to a cautionary tale. The result is a movie about the plurality of ambition and how, at its core, it should be the pursuit of accountability.
A young Ranbir Kapoor humanised the drifter-hero, just like a young Shah Rukh Khan did through iconic titles like Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Kapoor reached peak relatability with his Harpreet “Rocket” Singh Chaddha in this Jaideep Sahni-written script for the ages. The underdog story remains a fascinating portrait — and critique — of ambition in an age of corporate cold-bloodedness. As a mediocre college graduate who gets an entry-level job at a computer sales firm, the 21-year-old Sikh protagonist weaponises his honest-to-a-fault worldview, starts his own little company, and reframes ambition as the business of humanity. It’s not only an indictment of academics as the be-all-and-end-all in Indian culture — it’s also an ode to the everyman-entrepreneurial spirit in a country that seldom looks beyond biopics about big names. After all, a Rocket Sales Corporation walks so that a Shaadi Mubarak (from Band Baaja Baarat) can sprint to box-office success.
Vikramaditya Motwane’s feature film debut can top any list about any theme. It’s memorable in ways we don’t even have to experience to know. But the hidden core of Udaan (‘flight’) — a film about an expelled teenager who is forced to return to an abusive father — is the ambition to live. It’s not like Rajat Barmecha’s Rohan only aspires to be a writer and a poet; he also aspires to defy the toxic masculinity of his dad and become nothing like him.
That’s what drives Rohan’s slow-burning courage and rebellion against a man who is a victim of a culture that represses the freedom to dream. The Jamshedpur-set story might be personal to the makers, but it also democratises the desire to grow by knowing where not to be, not necessarily where you should be. That climax of outrunning a parent who taught you how to run on his terms is one of the most evocative images of modern Hindi cinema. That’s what true ambition is.
Gauri Shinde’s moving coming-of-age drama revolves around a young female cinematographer with unresolved mental
health issues and a career that pushes her to the brink. Alia Bhatt’s Kaira is a workaholic who uses her job to deflect childhood trauma, sidestep stability and dodge adult heartbreak. Apart from being one of the rare Hindi films to destigmatise therapy and understand the role of a psychologist without being preachy, Dear Zindagi unfolds as a cautionary tale about modern ambition.
It’s a big swing in a storytelling landscape that’s wired to glorify aspiration and judge youngsters who show signs of vulnerability. Given its mainstream identity, the narrative bats for solutions for conditions that cannot be ‘cured’ overnight, but there’s a sense of reckoning about the way it handles the subject. I know a generation of imposter-syndrome-afflicted and repressed millennials who felt seen through this tender tale of self-love and non-romanticised hope.