Aankhen

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.

When Vijay Singh Rajput, a quirky, honest and extremely strict bank manager finds one of his employees trying to con a customer, he completely loses his temper and brutally beats him. As a result he is fired from his job. A broken and angry Rajput, who has given all his life to this bank, is decisive to take revenge, and what can be a better way to take revenge if not rob the bank itself? His plan is further progressed when he meets Neha, a teacher at a blind school. Rajput decides to use Neha to fulfill his plan, and he kidnaps her young brother to blackmail her. He then finds the ultimate team of three blind men: Vishwas, Arjun and Ilias. What happens next is what forms the film's suspense.

That's the basic story of Aankhen, a highly enjoyable and twisted thriller which is quite cleverly scripted. The film's concept is rather unusual for Hindi movies, and even though the story is hard to believe, the film is captivating and is generally well developed and convincingly made. Aspects that contribute to it include the great cinematography, the effective editing, the witty dialogues, and the unpredictable proceedings. The film is not without its flaws, and at times it really lacks depth and focus. The character of Rajput is particularly faulty in this regard. Towards the end, after the robbery scene everyone was much awaiting happens, the film loses its balance, and the ending is quite disappointing.

Aankhen is well acted, and of course Amitabh Bachchan excels in his negative role which allows him to have fun with his character's inexplicable nature. Akshay Kumar is very good as the sensible and intelligent Vishwas, and Arjun Rampal is well cast as the kindhearted Arjun. The film, however, has two actors who utterly steal the show, and they are Sushmita Sen and Paresh Rawal. Sen is outstanding as the tormented and vulnerable Neha, and Rawal is also superb in a wonderful comic role which is both funny and touching. What I liked about the film is that every character was given a story of its own, thus making easy to understand their motives to do what they did.

In a few words, Aankhen is very good Hindi entertainment, and in spite of its flaws manages to be a good watch with family and friends.

Aankhen, A Dangerous Game is a film worth watching just for the superb acting. Starring Amithabh Bachan, Akshay Kumar, Shushmita Sen, Arjun Rampal and Paresh Rawal is a great noteworthy cast. The Big B excels himself playing the shizophrenic bank manager, who after getting the sack from his beloved bank decides to seek revenge by carrying out a bank robbery. His performance is electrifying,(very DeNiro like) even when he is not talking his expressions tell it all. Aside from his acting the guy looks great too, not totally reinventing himself but the last shot of him leaves you thinking whether that was just Amithabh Bachan ( or Ali G)

Akshay Kumar as Vishwas performs great but mainly because his character is more developed than that of Arjun Rampal. Akshay plays one of the blind men with a a twist, he has a sixth sense. At first this seemed absurd but it provided a reason for the great scenes between Akshay and Amithabh Bachan so it could possibly be excused by the audience.

Arjun's performance is somewhat overshadowed by the rest of the cast. His character Arjun provides the subtle love story developing with Shushmita Sen. Arjun looked great although it can be criticised that he and Akshay looked too good to be blind men, but the movie is very much in this century, where not every blind person is seen as poor, although Paresh was given that role for good measure. Paresh Rawal as Ilias gives an outstanding performance. In Aankhen he is given the opportunity to shine whereas in many of his past films, he is the same old villain or the joker who is only there to provide the laughs. Ok so the latter point may be true in this film too but here it is the relationship between the three blind men that give it its subtle humour, allowing the audience to relate to the characters.

Shushmita Sen plays Neha the schoolteacher who is there to train the blind men. Not only does she look great on screen without the skimpy dresses but also her ability to carry out the role has to be her greatest performance so far. Although she does nothing outstanding in the movie that will leave you in awe of her, her acting throughout the whole film is consistent and you are left with no doubt of her brilliant performance.

The script is great and deserves a round of applause, the debut from the director has proved that he is one to look out for. The climax to the film is thrilling and makes sure that everything comes out completely intact without any details left out. Although it has to be said that although the ending is different it does leave the viewer unsatisfied.The music is not upto scratch and could have been improved.

Overall if you've watched Oceans Eleven this could be said to be the Hindi version. A must watch for any movie goer. If you want to see something different from Bollywood this is the one, hopefully more great story lines are to come abt, (heard Company is a good one to watch out for.

This is one Game that should not be Missed!!!

The other guy that commented on this movie, obviously didn't know what he was talking about. This movie was great. One of a few thrillers from Bollywood. Sushmita Sen, and Arjun Rampal gave a breath taking performance. Amitabh was great as usual. The plot line of this movie was good, and it keeps your attention with twists and turns along the way. By the way, for the guy that asked, Aankhen means blind. Before you rent, or buy a Bollywood movie, you have to be ready to listen, to a lot of song, and watch a lot of dances. Indians who have a rough life, like to watch movies with a lot of songs to up lift their spirits. If you like bollywood movies, this one is very very good. It is a must see! With a 9 out of ten on MY personal scale

The movie is about a recently fired schizophrenic bank manager scheming to get even with his employers by robbing the bank with the help of three blind men and a beautiful blind school teacher! Amitabh Bachchan as the bank manager excels in his role. He is one of the most talented guys out there today. Pity not all his movies are as good as this one or his earlier Aks. The movie moves with a fast pace initially, but slows down towards the middle with cursory song and dance sequences spoiling its pace(the two songs - one with the three blind guys and the other in the bar are very painful to sit through). It picks up pace towards the end and even has quite a few surprising twists that I most certainly didn't expect in a mainstream hindi movie! Good job director and script writer! Thank goodness you didn't make the movie boring by removing those twists and giving us a bland fare which most box-office fearing mediocre directors would have done. Akshay, Paresh, Arjun and Sush all perform their roles well.

There are a few glitches in the movie - like the name of the bank. A most ridiculous name. Then the location of the bank itself. A bank that has a lobby looking like that of a 3-star hotel is located in the midst of a busy and dirty side street in Mumbai! Sure! None of the songs are appealing, except the one with Bipasha Basu - in fact the rest of the songs are really irritating and definitely jarring in the midst of an interesting screenplay. Directors of India - I LOVE songs in a movie; but not when it interrupts the movie's flow drastically.

Overall, a must see movie.