Aankhen - Hindi Film 2002

Aanken (2002) is a Thriller Bollywood movie released on 05 April 2002. Gaurang Doshi produced the movie and Vipul Shah directed the movie in addition to write the screenplay along with Aatish Kapadia.  

Aankhen (2002) Star Cast

Aanken (2002) features Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Sushmita Sen, Arjun Rampal and Paresh Rawal in lead roles. Aditya Pancholi, Arun Bakshi, Ajit Vachani, Shreyas Talpade, Paresh Gantra, Daya and Shankar Pandey played pivotal supporting roles in the movie.

Bipasha Basu played a cameo appearance in the movie. Kashmira Shah made a special appearance in the song Chalka Chalka.

Aankhen (2002) Budget and Box Office Collection

Aankhen (2002) received a huge commercial success. It collected 47.19 Cr approximately (worldwide) against a Budget of 17 Cr. Approximately. 

Aankhen (2002) became the 2nd Highest Grossing Bollywood Movie of the year 2002 after Devdas (2002). 

Aankhen (2002) Movie Plot

Vijay Singh Rajput (Amitabh Bachchan) works as a Bank Manager in Vilasrao Jaferson Bank. He raised the Bank from the initial days. He also won the Best employee award for 25 years in a row. 

Vijay Singh is a very possessive about his job, becomes impulsive, and loses his controls when he sees dereliction of duties by any employee. He many time beats those employees brutally and eventually fired from bank services for beating such an employee for embezzlement of Rs. 100. 

Devastated Vijay Singh plans to take revenge with the bank by looting the bank and making it bankrupt. He plans to rob the bank with the help of some blind persons. He got this idea after witnessing Neha (Sushmita Sen) training some blind to make certain unrealistic jobs. 

Vijay Singh gives an advertisement in the newspaper for giving training to blind persons. He chooses three blind but highly ambitions persons namely Arjun Verma (Arjun Rampal), Iliyas (Paresh Rawal) who is a beggar and begs in running trains and Vishwas Prapjapati (Akshay Kumar). 

Not all three were blind by birth and even Vishwas became blind just two years back while he was travelling with his newly wedded wife Raina (Bipasha Basu). In the accidently Raina is killed and Vishwas becomes blind.

After initial resistance, the three get ready to work for Rs. 50 lakh each and agree to the unbelievable plan of looting a bank by three blind people.  A model of Vilasrao Jaferson Bank is prepared and all three start getting training there by Neha. However, Vijay Singh does not come in front of the three and watch them secretly. 

Vijay Singh visits the Bank and requests for making him part of forthcoming Ekadashi Pooja as he used to make this pious job in the bank every year. Vijay does this knowingly as he wants the Bank be robbed on the same day.

As per the plan, Vijay Singh would remain in the Bank to help the three if required. Further, Vijay Singh would deliberately come on the gunpoint of the robbers and will come out of Bank along with the robbers. 

Finally, the day of robbery comes and after some little obstacles, the three blinds complete the incredible job. However, Vishwas changes the plan in the nick of the time and does not bring Vijay Singh out of the bank to make them safe. The three returns to their training centre and ask Eliyas to hide the looted item.

In the meantime, ACP Thakur (Aditya Pancholi) starts investigating and come to know about Iliyas and he runs after to find the culprits. 

On the other hand, Vijay Singh wants the looted money back. He along with Neha reaches the Training Centre and informed Arjun and Vishwas that Police is after Iliyas. Arjun and Vishwas go to search Iliyas whereas Iliyas returns to the training centre.

Vijay Singh asks Iliyas for the looted items who refrains telling Vijay Singh about the looted money/jewelry. Vijay Singh starts beating Ilias who try to defend him. In the flick, Ilias falls down from the balcony and dies. 

Neha gets very disturbed with the death of Ilias and decides to apart from Vijay Singh. However, Vijay threats her that his younger brother Rahul is with him and if she gets apart, police would arrest her because she trained those three blind robbers.  Helpless Neha shots herself to save life of Vishwas and Arjun who likes her very much.

Vishwas and Arjun return and feel Neha’s dead body. A fight ensures with Vijay Singh and they eventually get them hide in another room. In the meantime, ACP Thakur reaches there with his team. 

Vijay Singh tries to explain ACP that Ilias, Neha, Arjun and Vishwas are the actual robbers of the bank. However, when ACP comes to know that Arjun and Vishwas are blind he refused to accept his statement.

Bank employees also state that the robbers cannot be blind at all. Vijay Singh brings ACP to the training centre where Neha used to train all three robbers to train but there is nothing like a training centre.

Aankhen (2002) Movie Review

Vipul Shah co-wrote the script in addition to helm the movie. He also remains in the team who wrote the story of the movie.  Both Story and Screenplay are good and written well.  The entire movie is engaging and makes curiosity for next moment.

When good story and screenplay comes with good acting talents, a film becomes first-rate. Actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Arjun Rampal and Sushmita Sen added further flavor in the movie.

Aankhen (2002) comes with a unique story of robbing a bank with three blind persons. No one can even imagine that blind person can rob the bank. A shining script supports the good story.

Acting Review

Thereafter, the director adds another feather in the cap. He worked on every actor’s character and groomed the same with full devotion. Amitabh Bachchan is charismatic as usual Paresh Rawal’s comedy timing is beyond doubt. 

Akshay Kumar has always been a good performance. Arjun Rampal and Sushmit Sen were also good. Aditya Pancholi as ACP Thakur did an above average performance.

Moreover, the director has worked even on every small character and they remained in audiences mind even after the movie ends. Characters like Cashier, Delnaz (Malvika Singh), Shailesh (Paresh Gantra) that makes the movie even better on every aspect.

Some cons

Having all the aforementioned positive aspects there are certain shortcomings in the movie. First the director takes a comparatively much time to established the motive of Vijay Singh Rajput (Amitabh Bachchan) to rob the bank he used to work earlier.

The first half hour is stretched pointlessly. In the climax, Vijay Singh sends Arjun (Arjun Rampal) and Vishwas (Akshay Kumar) to search for Iliyas. This appears illogic because both of them were blind.

Again when Vijay Singh tries to explain the story to ACP Thakur (Aditya Pancholi) the latter never ask how Vijay Singh knows about the entire episode.

In a single line, Aankhen (2002) is a must watch Bollywood Thriller.

Aankhen (2002) Awards and Nominations

* Amitabh Bachchan received nomination for Best Actor in Comic Role in the 48th Filmfare Awards 2003

* Paresh Rawal received nomination for Best Performance in a Comic Role in the 48th Filmfare Awards 2003.

Aankhen (2002) Ratings

IMDB provides a rating of 7.4 out of 10 to the movie. However, Bollywood Product rates it as 8 out of 10 because of its good story, tight screenplay, good direction and fantastic acting performances.