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.

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

Aankhen means 'eyes', the story of training three blind people to rob a bank in getting revenge proves for on the edge of the seat viewing. Amitabh again gives priceless acting, Akshay and Arjun Rampal are good supporting cast but Paresh Rawal is great adding great humour. Some of the songs in the films are obviously intended for the indian audience, as films fare poorly in record sales if a film has no songs.

The editing seems a littles inaccurate at times and this is clearly a flaw in the film, if bollywood was to bring out more original themes such as this film it would propel it to a new level.

On the whole, vintage amitabh and some scenes in the film especially between Akshay and the former are ones to remember.

A surprisingly good offering from Bollywood. A bank robbery is planned by a disgruntled ex-employee who is upset because he was fired. The plan involves recruiting 3 blind people, training them, etc. The goal, of course, is to rob the bank while making all the witnesses believe that the perpetrators were not blind. If they are caught, who would believe that they were the thieves, right ? But, twists, double crosses and love-twists abound. Understandably, filming such an intricate plot elegantly is beyond Bollywood writers/directors. The plot gets somewhat flimsy at places, where the director tries to forcibly insert some bollywood-ese sections. On the whole, a worthwhile film to watch. Amitabh shines. Paresh Rawal's melodrama is painful to watch. One gets the idea that this was an attempted copy of some Hollywood film.

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.