Film: Aankhen
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Paresh Rawal, Sushmita Sen, Bipasha Basu
Director: Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Producer: Gaurang Doshi
Music: Jatin-Lalit, Aadesh Srivastava

Gaurang Doshi's Aanken, directed by a man from a small screen Vipul Shah holds immense promise when it begins. In fact Amitabh Bachchan's deep and dangerous voice quickens our heartbeat. But hold on, this is only the beginning of…
Three blind men, three blind men,
see how they run,see how they run
They all are chased by the Big B
They all are chased by the big B
Three blind men..blah blah blah

Sorry folks, but I could not resist that after seeing Aankhen. They say imitation is the best form of flattery and with Bollywood’s Aakhen a somewhat twisted lift from Ocean’s Eleven and Blind Rage, it seems more like an insult. Pardon me but in reality the film was inspired by the Gujarati play Aandhalo paato written by Vipul Shah.

You would hope that a good slick bank robbery would take place and we will emerge with ‘whew ‘they did it. But of course in our Indian value system no film is without a moral. Comedy, tragedy,violence and tamasha all wrapped in one, so the Khichadi can be stale and unpalatable

Take for example the name of the bank to be robbed’ Vilasrao Jefferson Bank’. Huh Huh did I hear this one before,well it is not the president himself but our very own angry young man oops ! the angry old man who smolders,plots and executes. Apart from being a loyal employee of the bank for 30 years, he subjects a cashier to beating for robbing a old lady of Rs 100, looks sternly at security guards when their cell phones ring and chases victims into crowded bazaars ( here star struck onlookers gleefully watch) as he beats up the victim with steel water filters. This act of course gets the 'schizophrenic' Bachchan lose his job and make an enemy.

This is where the parallel with the three blind mice Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Arjun Rampal - come in and the dangerous game enters into the picture. If you have seen Amitabh’s Mohabattein or Aks, you would know something about the roles that he is pitching in nowadays. The negative one of course. Peeved with this ignominy he plans, with undisguised fury, a revenge on the bank. How does he do it. With ingenuity, AB figures that if he actually gets the blind men to rob his bank, their blindness would be their perfect alibi and everything would be okay. Lo behold we are introduced, to Sushmita Sen, an instructor for the blind, responsible for their training, who is bullied into the scheme ,you guessed it right, all by holding her brother as ransom. Did anyone hear about Braille not present in a blind school. This one does.

The ending is only the Shh Shhh…… the beginning of a dangerous game. See if you can figure this one out.

Ashok Mehta's camera sets the mood and style and the songs sequences have been shot in South Africa. The movie is not all at inspiring and kind of degenerates even with talented Paresh Rawal’s comic interludes. Bollywood seems bold picking up new genres but it is again the same old wine in new bottles. Maybe we can order something more sparkling instead.

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