Ankhen

Rajkumar Santoshi's "Ankhen" arrives as an ambitious espionage thriller that attempts to weave together romance, family drama, and geopolitical intrigue—a combination that occasionally sparkles but more often strains under its own weight. The film's premise is genuinely compelling: a spy caught between duty and personal entanglements, with the stakes extending into his own household through an embedded operative. Ajay Devgn delivers a measured performance as Sunil Mehra, carrying the moral complexity of a man who must choose between his nation and his family with restraint rather than histrionics. However, the narrative frequently buckles under the pressure of juggling too many plot threads—the dual love interests feel more like obligatory Bollywood conventions than organic complications, and the emotional payoff of Sunil's "death" gets diluted by obvious foreshadowing.

Where "Ankhen" genuinely impresses is in its willingness to complicate the spy-thriller formula with domestic vulnerability. The idea of a terrorist operative infiltrating a household as a trusted family member creates real dramatic tension, and Santoshi demonstrates considerable skill in orchestrating the reveal sequences and the subsequent cat-and-mouse game. Sushmita Sen and Priyanka Chopra provide capable support, though the screenplay doesn't always give them the depth their characters deserve. The film's climactic act does recover momentum, moving from melodrama into genuine suspense as the family orche