AKS
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Raveena Tandon, Manoj Bajpai
Director: Rakesh Mehra
Producer: AB Corp Ltd.

RATING:
*** * *

No psychological thriller this. In fact, it defies logic. The story is simple. Manu Verma that is Amitabh Bachchan is in charge of the security of defence minister Amol Palekar. A mercenary Raghavan that is Manoj Bajpai who is a master at disguises, thanks to his psycho brother Mahadevan (KK Raina), succeeds in killing the minister that AB is supposed to save. Once the defence minister is dead, the killer sets his sights on obviously the PM.

Raveena oozes oomph from every limb, as she plays Manoj Bajpai's woman. Nandita Das is the disgruntled typical cop-wife. So what does apna security chief do? He gets Raghavan alright, and when the master of disguises tries to escape, he kills him as well. Here, the story ends. Oops! It is just intermission…

Raghavan enters Manu's body and commits murders one after the other now. But there are another set of villains, and they burn Mahadevan's hand and Raghavan's ghost in Manu's body kills them too.

And the story goes on and on like some old time film.
The end is obviously the ghost is off, but they have left room for a sequel. If only the audiences sit through the original!!!!

Amitabh Bachchan and Manoj Bajpai come out with superlative performances. Raveena sizzles through and is at her glamorous best. But one wonders why the Raveena suddenly starts grieving for Manoj Bajpai as though she is his widow in the second half.

A talented actress like Nandita Das is not used at all.
Now, for the million dollar question… Why is the film called Aks or reflection? Simply because when Amitabh Bahchcan has Manoj Bajpai's ghost inside him, he sees Bajpai in the mirror. Brilliant!! We don't wish to say anything more…

RELEASE DATE: 13th July 2001