Aankhen (2002)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I have just seen AANKHEN and I am surprised to say that this film is very good. It is based on a Gujarati play ANDHALO PAATO and is as good as the original. The story revolves around a mentally unstable Vijay Singh Rajput (Amitabh Bachchan) who plots to rob the bank he has worked for so many years assiduously. To do so, he hires a teacher for the blind, Neha (Sushmita Sen). Vijay tells Neha to recruit three blind men, Vishwas (Akshay Kumar), Arjun (Arjun Rampal) and Ilias (Paresh Rawal). All said and done, the three men do rob the bank. But after the robbery, things go seriously haywire. There are murders, investigations, stolen loots etc. The credit for the entire film must go to the great, Amitabh Bachchan. He proves yet again why he is one of the versatile actors of Bollywood. He is one of the few actors in the industry who want to experiment with diverse roles. Just when Bachchan's fans thought that he couldn't get any better in terms of versatility, he strikes again with an out and out negative performance. He starts off as an honest and dedicated man who has devoted his life to the bank and then he displays his grey shades, that of a man obsessed with destroying the bank and its employees who kicked him out. Bachchan's character has shades of his character from his previous flick, AKS. Here, Bachchan goes one step ahead and delivers a knockout performance. Akshay Kumar is showing vast improvement as an actor. He has really improved on his acting skills and also got good dialogues to mouth.Arjun Rampal is a miscast for his role. He tries too hard to bring the right emotions on his face but fails. The modulation in his strong voice is surely missing which kind of ruins his overall effort as an actor. On the other hand, I think out of the 3 people, Paresh Rawal as Ilias stood out in every aspects. He is a natural with good comic skills and emoting abilities. He is definitely the best in this movie next to Bachchan.Sushmita Sen as Neha did a really nice job. She exhibits raw talent and emotes really well on screen. Her scenes with Bachchan are excellent.The rest of the cast lend able support. Aditya Panscholi is excellent as the cop and Bipasha Basu and Kashmira Shah look hot in their guest appearances in two songs. The songs are also good in this film, especially "phatella jeb" and "gustakhiyan". The film drags a little bit in the first half, but the second half explodes with really good performances from almost all of the star casts and the climax is simply unusual and brilliant. Overall, a brilliant movie with good performances, especially from the veteran Amitabh Bachchan and it's a must watch for all of his fans! I rate it 9/10.

I really enjoyed this. I had come to watch it not knowing what to expect. I had heard the part about all the characters being blind but not much else. What i discovered was an excellent bank heist thriller with great turns from Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar (who i normally don't like, in fact i thought he was very good in this).Even arjun rampal, who is a very dull screen personality, came across well. I always find he is better playing blind guys (see also VAADA) or villains (see Om Shanti Om). Sushmita Sen was great, she is very pretty, i wish the romance between her and arjun could have been developed a little more (or maybe they should do another film together as they make a nice pair)but it probably would have spolied the tone of Aankhen.Overall it was a film that really draws you in. The plot was good and the ending made me wish for a sequel!

A surprisingly good offering from Bollywood. A bank robbery is planned by a disgruntled ex-employee who is upset because he was fired. The plan involves recruiting 3 blind people, training them, etc. The goal, of course, is to rob the bank while making all the witnesses believe that the perpetrators were not blind. If they are caught, who would believe that they were the thieves, right ? But, twists, double crosses and love-twists abound. Understandably, filming such an intricate plot elegantly is beyond Bollywood writers/directors. The plot gets somewhat flimsy at places, where the director tries to forcibly insert some bollywood-ese sections. On the whole, a worthwhile film to watch. Amitabh shines. Paresh Rawal's melodrama is painful to watch. One gets the idea that this was an attempted copy of some Hollywood film.

That pretty much sums it up. As heist thrillers go, this is a pretty solid movie. The lengthy time actually works in its favor, because it allows the main characters to be fully fleshed out. Unless you're David Mamet, it's pretty hard to do a 90 minute heist movie and have you care about the people involved. From an American perspective, this movie is quite fresh, both in the concept and the lack of American stereotypes (there's no young punk, retired thief returning for one last score, or anything like that here.) Also, the tension level is excellently done. That said, there are some major credibility issues; you can buy something like "Heist" working, but "Aankhen" it's best to turn your brain off. This is more along the lines of something like "To Catch a Thief"; you don't buy it but the ride's so much fun you don't care.The directing by Vipul Shah definitely deserves kudos on the visual end and with the actors; the director uses both the foreground AND the background, unconcerned with what's in focus and what isn't (and in fact drops in a few jokes), and the framing is quite precise. Even when he's constrained by the necessity of suddenly making a music video, he does his best. The acting isn't perfect, but the actors are convincing in their handicapped and Amitabh Bachchan comes off as one cold-blooded hombre.This is definitely worth a look, a superior slice of dumb fun.