Aankhen
- Director
- Vipul ShahVipul Amrutlal Shah
- Studio
- V R Films, Gaurang Doshi Productions
- Release Date
- 5 April 2002
- Language
- Hindi
- Budget
- ₹17.00 Cr
- Box Office
- ₹33.80 Cr
Review
Rajkumar Santoshi's "Aankhen" is a film that grabs you by the throat with an audacious premise and refuses to let go. The central conceit—using blind men as unwitting instruments in a heist—could have been exploitative or gimmicky in lesser hands, but here it becomes a vehicle for something far more interesting: a meditation on dignity, manipulation, and the price of revenge. Amitabh Bachchan's Vijay is a man consumed by humiliation, and the actor channels this into a performance that's both magnetic and deeply troubling. His transformation from wronged professional to ruthless manipulator is gradual, making his moral collapse feel inevitable rather than sudden. The supporting cast, particularly the three blind actors, brings authenticity to their roles; these aren't caricatures but fully realized people caught in circumstances beyond their control.
Where the film truly finds its heart is in Neha's arc. She becomes the moral compass of the narrative, the one voice willing to name what everyone else is ignoring—that Vijay's plan, however clever, is built on the exploitation of vulnerable people. This is where "Aankhen" transcends heist-thriller territory and becomes something more philosophically challenging. The robbery sequences are taut and well-executed, but the real tension emerges in the aftermath, in the suffocating paranoia and fractured loyalties that follow. However, the film occasionally loses itself in its own complications; the romantic subplot involving one of t
Storyline
Vijay Singh Rajput is a volatile, unhinged bank manager who gets fired after savagely beating a corrupt employee—and he's absolutely furious about it! So he hatches this wild revenge scheme: he'll orchestrate a bank heist using three blind men as thieves, banking on the fact that nobody would ever suspect people without sight of pulling off such an audacious crime. He blackmails Neha, a school teacher, into training Vishwas (who gained a supernatural sixth sense after losing his sight), Ellyaas, and Arjun to execute this seemingly impossible robbery, and honestly, watching these guys train and bond is genuinely heartwarming amidst all the chaos.
The heist actually works—the jewels are stolen clean—but everything spirals into paranoia and cruelty when Ellyaas gets caught on camera and Rajput becomes obsessed with torturing the location of the loot out of them! Things get darker when we discover Neha is only cooperating because Rajput has kidnapped her younger brother, and worse still, Arjun confesses his love for her while Rajput escalates into actual physical abuse. In a devastating turn, drunk Ellyaas shows up at Rajput's place, and Rajput's sadistic interrogation goes too far—he harasses Ellyaas so brutally that the guy falls off a balcony and dies, and you feel that tragedy absolutely gut-punch the narrative.
Neha, shattered and cornered, pulls a gun on Rajput and realizes the only way to protect the surviving two is to sacrifice herself—so she shoots herself as Arjun and Vishwas come running back, hearing her screams! The ending hits hard because you're left with this bittersweet moment where her selfless act finally frees them to take down the monster who orchestrated this entire nightmare, and that emotional devastation is what makes this film stick with you long after the credits roll.
