Aankhen- Because fiction is far stranger than the truth…
What do Amitabh Bachchan, three blind men, and a bank have in common? Brace yourselves for the weirdest heist movie straight from
Bollywood!
Release Info
Directed by: Vipul Amrutlal Shah Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Paresh Rawal, Sushmita Sen
Language: Hindi English Title: Eyes Movie Industry: Bollywood Runtime: 165 min
Plot
The movie opens with an enjoyable dance stunt and the title
song. At least, the movie underlines the fact that it’s a Bollywood flick,
although you might actually forget about it as the story goes on.
Our main hero is a fine gentleman called Vijay Singh Rajput
(played by the always awesome Amitabh Bachchan) who is the manager of a highly
respectable and profitable bank. However, honourable Mr Rajput suffers from…
schizophrenia(!), which often makes him lose his temper in heated situations
and resort to physical violence. That is the case with one of the bank clerks
who after stealing 100 rupees is beaten almost to death by Rajput. Needless
to say, Rajput is fired from his beloved job by the bank management and thus he
decides to carry out the most painful revenge on his superiors. That is, he
plans to perform “the weirdest bank robbery ever made.”
In view of this, an alleged schizophrenic (the guy’s a
maniac for sure, yet I wouldn’t call him schizophrenic, but rather a guy with
some serious self-control issues) devises a plan which even Dom Cobb would find
batshit crazy, namely, rob a bank with the help of three blind folks. Reason?
Such guys would never be suspected of committing the crime. Genius!
In order to carry out his devious plan, Rajput puts out a fake
announcement about a workshop for blind men, and also blackmails a foxy
teacher, Neva (Sushmita Sen), by kidnapping her younger brother, to help him
train the team…
Premise & Focus
The longer the movie goes on, the crazier it gets, but not
entirely in a negative way. The main premise is clearly put forward at the
beginning and the “how they’re gonna do it?” question is the driving force which
keeps us watching this Italian Job on steroids.
Interestingly, the focus of the film shifts relatively
quickly from the character of Rajput to the blind men. Arjun (Arjun Rampal), an
endless optimist whose tendency to care can only be compared to Jesus; Ilyass (Paresh Rawal), a noisy street-bum who can never be serious
when required to; and Vishwas (Akshay Kumar), a guy who with the loss of his
eyesight gained “the sixth sense” and can sense people around. Yes indeed, this
trio seems even crazier than Rajput, but watching them work together is pure
entertainment itself. Strangely enough, they seem to be the characters whom we
are supposed to cheer on and relate to. We get to know their tragic back stories,
observe how they get along, and eventually how they get as a team. Nevertheless, the
viewers are somewhat fooled from the beginning by perceiving Rajput as the
ultimate hero of this twisted story. Why is that the case?
Characters
First of all, Rajput is the very first character we see on screen and the issue is that with every consecutive scene, Rajput is
presented as more and more negative and inconsistent as an action hero. By logic,
he should be the one we ought to have pity on. Despite his anger, he was a
devoted worker who got cheated out of his years of hardship. In consequence, it
should seem that Rajput wants to commit a crime purely for providing sufficient
moral justice, in order to make the management feel fooled and ashamed.
However, the bank booty becomes Rajput’s obsession and after the heist, he is
determined to go at lengths so as to keep the stolen jewellery.
The blind team, on the other hand, are the total
contradiction of Rajput. Instead of being just in the background, they are the
ones who are put in the spotlight of this twisted story. Apart from comic
relief from Ilyass and some “thriller-like” innuendos from Vishwas, we are also
served a romantic subplot between sensitive Arjun and harassed Neva.
Unfortunately, this stereotypical love affair does more harm than good to
the picture, because it goes totally nowhere…
In fact, after the amazing final heist scene (because there
are a couple of these in the film) the whole picture seems to go nowhere. The
last 40 minutes completely ruin the still-unstable mood of the picture with its
unbelievable plot twists and unevenly paced action.
Bollywood flick or not?
At the beginning, I made a statement that you might lose
the feeling of the film being a Bollywood production. The problem is that it
tries as hard as possible to be a Hollywood-like movie. We have the evil bank,
some high-class interiors, and a few English catchphrases like “All the best”
or “Truth is stranger than fiction.” In addition to that, the setting is also a
crucial factor. The movie was shot mainly indoors, but you get impression
that there is something wrong with all of the outdoor scenes. Why is that?
Well, perhaps it is the fact that the film was shot not in India, but in Cape
Town, South Africa! This isn’t Mumbai, this isn’t New Delhi, this is just
Cape Town pretending to be an Indian city! Maybe it’s just my own exaggeration,
but I clearly felt that all the streets packed with Indian extras looked pretty
strange and after reading the movie info, I finally knew that the “fake
location” was to be blamed.
Moreover, we are served with only three dance scenes in the
movie. These were very well made, but also felt quite forced and out of place. However,
perhaps the genre of heist movies isn’t the best sort of material to put Bollywood
music in.
Recommendations
All in all, the makers of this weird delusion couldn’t
decide whether it should be entirely a heist movie, an action-drama movie, or a
thriller and as a result we are served with a mixture of the three. Yet again,
the movie isn’t entirely bad and it has some positive sides. For instance, the
heist scenes are awesome, the chemistry between the partners in crime is also
great, believable, and somewhat moving. I deliberately left out some major plot
twists from this review so you could fully enjoy the fun as well as the insanity of
this “weirdest heist movie ever made.”
However, don’t expect anything in “Ocean’s Eleven style". If
you don’t have anything exceptional to watch on Saturday evening, this film is
worth giving a shot only for one time, just to experience some proper
action but also a chain of illogical inconsistencies which will surely make you
laugh a bit.
Overall score: 6/10
