Khakee!

This is written on Feb 04, 2004 - Reproduced as a reader's choice (?!)

Khakee, as name suggests is a cop story. It has distinct advantage over other cop stories made in thamizh viz 'thanga pathakkam', 'moonru mugam', 'oomai vizhigal', 'saami' and 'kaaka kaaka'. It is even different from 'maamooli' hindi cop stories.

A team under Big B was given responsibilities to bring an 'accused' (athul kulkarni, an impressive performance) from Chandangarh to Mumbai. It was not as easy as it used to be. By doing so, they come across 'helping' citizen aishwarya (a nice cameo!) and a perfect and cruel villain Ajay Devgan.

One's heart goes for Big B in this movie. He knows his limitations and by understanding so, he could take up and perform these roles with such ease and after watching this movie you can say he is really BIG. His introduction was a superb piece and goes on till the end of the movie. His experience of 'angry young man (rather old man!)' comes in handy and he is a treat to watch.

Akshay Kumar, a bad cop who tries to avoid this assignment but could not, comes up with an excellent witty, cheeky performance. His conversations with Tushaar (another cop, who aspires to be 'sincere',doing simple job) and Aishwarya Rai bring out instant laughter. Particularly, the way in which he tries to woo 'Rai' reminds my 'teenage' days!

Ajay Devgan, for a change took the villain part. He could take any role and comes up with his own stylish performance. His mannerisms were superb and his eyes speak a lot. Watch out for this guy! The BGM score on his appearance is really impressive!

'Khakee' brings out sincere cop, bad turned out to be a good cop, aspiring cop, a real bad cop and a cheat cop. It also dwells in the 'ugly' nexus between politicians and police.

Rajkumar Santoshi should be appreciated for an interesting, crisp screenplay. With three 'A'ces up in his sleeve (Amitabh, Akshay & Ajay), Khakee is a treat to watch.

Tail piece: Khakee has Big B, Akshay, Ajay, Tushaar, Aishwarya, Athul Kulkarni, Prakash Raj, breaking the barrier of heroism. When will this happen in Thamizh Cinema which is full of 'hero' workship?