Aankhen (2002 film)

Aankhen
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Produced by	Gaurang Doshi
Screenplay by	Aatish Kapadia Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Story by	Aatish Kapadia Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Starring	Amitabh Bachchan Akshay Kumar Sushmita Sen Arjun Rampal Paresh Rawal
Music by	Jatin Lalit Aadesh Shrivastava Nitin Raikwar
Cinematography	Ashok Mehta
Editing by	Shirish Kunder
Distributed by	V R Films
Release date(s)	April 5, 2002
Running time	165 min.
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Aankhen (Urdu: آنکھیں, translation: eyes) is a 2002 Bollywood Heist film directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah; starring Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Paresh Rawal and Sushmita Sen. AAnkhen is all about a bank robbery by three blind men. The film was nominated for two Filmfare Awards (Best Supporting Actor for Bachchan and Best Comic Actor for Rawal) and three Star Screen Awards (Best Film, Best Comic Actor for Rawal, and Best Negative Actor for Bachchan).

Plot

Aankhen is a heist movie based on the Gujarati play Andhalo Pato revolving around a bank robbery committed by three blind men. Obsessive temperamental bank manager Vijay Singh Rajput (Amitabh Bachchan) loses his job after badly beating up a bank clerk who tried to embezzle money. Angered at losing his job he plots revenge on the bank by intending to stage a heist. He employs three blind men — Vishwas (Akshay Kumar), Ilyaas (Paresh Rawal) and Arjun (Arjun Rampal) — when, after passing by school for the blind, he understands that blind people can be trained to do things like sighted people. He enlists the help of Neha (Sushmita Sen) who is a teacher at the school to train the trio to do the seemingly impossible heist. He chose blind people because the robbers would be never caught as no one would believe blind people can do so.

The bank robbery is successful, with the jewels safely captured by the three. However, in the process of robbing the bank, Ilyaas's face is exposed, captured in footage and prompting city-wide posters with his face. Meanwhile, Mr. Rajput anxiously tries to extort information from Vishwas and Arjun regarding the jewels and their location. Unable to answer, as they did not collect the items, they try to defer the answer by changing subjects. Ultimately, it is revealed that Ilyaas is the one with complete knowledge of the box's belongings. Meanwhile, tensions rise between Rajput and Neha; the latter resists the abusive nature of Rajput and his obnoxious harassing of Vishwas and Arjun. Arjun confesses his love to Neha, who reveals that she is associated in the plot only for the well-being of her younger brother, Rahul, who has been kidnapped by Rajput.

In a furious attempt, the police try to locate Ilyaas. Ilyaas lands up at Rajput's place after getting drunk. Rajput tries several ways to force Ilyaas into revealing the location of the box. Unable to generate an answer, he slams Ilyaas, who falls on the ground and injures his eyes, causing bleeding. Even in this scenario, Rajput tries to get the information, but Vishwas and Arjun resist and claim that they will reveal the location if Ilyaas is treated by paramedics. Rajput send them to get Dr. Siddiqui. Vishwas senses that Ilyaas is in danger and Arjun and Vishwas double back to the training center to save him. Rajput starts to harass Ilyaas by tickling him to force him to reveal the answer. In the action, Ilyaas falls of the balcony and dies. Unable to bear the shock of the death, Neha pulls a gun on Rajput and threatens to reveal everything to the police if he does not leave her and the other two men alone. Rajput notifies Neha that all these acts were done under her training, and he is spotless. Unable to bear this fact, Neha shoots herself, just as Vishwas and Arjun return after hearing loud screams.

Both men gang up on Rajput and try to attack him. Once Rajput realizes that the men are ignorant about the jewels, he starts shooting them. The police come, and confusion ensues. Vishwas and Arjun come out and claim that Rajput is abusing them while he claims that there is a big conspiracy involving the two men, Neha and Ilyaas. Unable to believe that blind men can ransack a bank and amidst Rajput's impassioned defense, the police start getting suspicious. In the heat of defending himself, Rajput reveals that he had sent over Ilyaas, thus confessing his crime. The police arrest him.

Vishwas and Arjun decide to take care of Rahul and ultimately find the jewels — they were hidden in Ilyaas' musical instrument. The men yell "We won!" while remembering the sacrifice of Ilyaas and Neha.

The movie has an international ending in which Rajput bribes the cop and is set free. In the last scene Vishwas and Arjun are sitting in a train (waiting for it to depart) and Rajput is standing on the platform with a smile on his face. He then warns them that "A dangerous game is about to begin."

Cast

• Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay Singh Rajput
• Sushmita Sen as Neha Srivastav
• Akshay Kumar as Vishwas Prajapati
• Arjun Rampal as Arjun Verma
• Paresh Rawal as Iliyas
• Arun Bali as Mr. Goenka
• Aditya Pancholi as the Police Inspector
• Paresh Ganatra as Shailesh
• Malvika Singh as Delnaaz
• Ajit Vachchani as Mr. Bandari
• Bipasha Basu as Raina (Cameo)
• Kashmira Shah Special appearance in song "Chalka Chalka"
• Shreyas Talpade as Mushtaq (Chaiwallah / Tea seller on railway station)
• Daya Shankar Pandey
• Depesh Shah

Track list

1. "Amitabh Solilogi" & title song: Amitabh Bachchan, Remo Fernandes & Sonu Nigam
2. "Gustakhiyan": Aadesh Shrivastava
3. "Kuch Kasme": Alka Yagnik & Sonu Nigam
4. "Theme song": Remo Fernandes
5. "Phatela Jab": Aadesh Shrivastava, Arun Bakshi & Nitin Raikwar
6. "Chalka Chalka": Alka Yagnik & Javed
7. "Nazron Ne Teri": Udit Narayan
8. "All the Best": Remo Fernandes

External links

• Aankhen at the Internet Movie Database