Aankhen (2002) & Bilnd Rage (1978) - The acute similarities by Bobby Sing

Released in 1978, Blind Rage isn’t any mega or widely known venture but it does have an unusual and unheard-of plot resulting in a more than decent film, drawing attention for the same reason. Directed by Efren C. Pinon, it features Fred Williamson, Tony Ferrer, Leo Fong, D'Urville Martin, Dick Adair, Darnell Garcia and Leila Hermosa in the key roles, and is about a rare bank-heist plan in which 5 blind men are used to complete the task avoiding suspicion of any kind.

 

An amount of 15 million is being transferred to a bank in Philippines and the plan to rob the bank is jointly devised by one of the syndicate members, bribed by another experienced crook who surprisingly knows everything about the money as well as the bank. The plan is conceived by hiring four blind men to be trained for the specific task and a professional girl Sally is brought in to train them for the steal. The girl recruits another local criminal who also happens to be blind and then trains them all with the help of maps, directions and sound recognition at an exact replica of the bank created at their hiding place.

 

On the day of execution, Sally waits outside the bank in a car and the 5 blind men enter the bank as scheduled according to their brail watches. They all do successfully steal the money but, in the process, also shoot a few people hearing unusual sounds made by them including customers, employees and guards.

 

The police officials find a cane lying in the bank which leads them to Ben - one of the blind men involved in the heist. Ben gives up in the interrogation and then assists the Police in finding the other men taking them to the place they were actually trained by a girl. A cat and mouse game begins with the blind men trying to escape hiding in a gasoline tank. But as it begins leaking, they meet their fate and the Police successfully manages to catch the heist’s key conspirator.

 

Released in 2002, Aankhen (meaning Eyes) is a heist thriller made on an exactly similar plot of Blind Rage (1978) adapted in a different context of revenge planned by the manager of the bank itself. Directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, it features Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Paresh Rawal and Sushmita Sen in the lead, and is quoted as an adaptation of Shah’s own Gujarati play titled ‘Andhalo Pato’ (meaning Blindman’s Fold). Earlier reportedly titled as ‘Aankh Micholi’ and later ‘All The Best’, the film also had two alternate endings with the title finalised as Aankhen. 

 

In one alternate, Amitabh gets caught as the culprit but nobody believes in his plan of using the blind men for the heist. But in the second, he manages to escape after bribing the police officials and then is shown thinking of getting back to the blind men who actually betrayed him after the heist, hinting towards a sequel.

Receiving appreciation from the audience as well as the critics, the film did well at the box office and was also a far better and entertaining film in comparison to the English original. AANKHEN presented the plot of a group of blind men robbing a bank with a fabulous mix of comedy and crime-thriller enacted by an outstanding team that had Paresh Rawal as the winner in his every single scene.

However, neither the source of inspiration was ever accepted or mentioned in the reviews or interviews about Aankhen, nor the film’s sequel has yet started, even after around two decades of its release back in 2002. Having said that, AANKHEN is a one of its kind, must watch heist thriller of Hindi cinema that can easily be rated as a great comic-thriller capable of bringing you onto the edge of your seats, scoring way above its original source of inspiration. So, do watch it if you haven’t seen it yet and have a great time.