Aakrosh

Jhanjhar is a village in Bihar where there is only one law – that of the jungle. And in this case its not a lion that rules the jungle but a pack of wolves led by Bahubali – the village head in a manner of speaking. Holding him in good stead is mainly Ajat Shatru (Paresh Rawal) the local SP and Pappu Tiwari (Jaideep Ahlawat) who is the local goon. And in this jungle you don’t mess with the wolves. But that’s exactly what 3 students from a Delhi Medical School do. Led by Deepu who is from Jhanjhar and in love with Roshni (Amita Pathak), they make their way to Jhanjhar and try to elope with Roshni. All it takes is for one priest to see Roshni take off and the 3 are caught. They go missing and are untraceable for the next couple of months. The apathy on the government’s part gets to the students of the med school and they go on an indefinite hunger strike till the government takes the required action.


Promptly, a CBI Team is appointed. The team is led by Siddhant Chaturvedi (Akshaye Khanna) a hot blooded young CBI Officer who is 2 cases and 6 convictions old. He is joined by his sidekick Keshav (Vineet Sharma) and Major Pratap Kumar (Ajay Devgn) – Officer on special duty. The clash of personalities is very obvious. Siddhant is an officer who goes only by the book and follows protocol to the T. Major Pratap is all for protocol but a bit more street smart and aware of the intricacies that exist in a place like Jhanjhar. He knows that the law means little of nothing to the people there. More so since he comes from a background where his entire family is wiped out thanks to the vengeance of one such Zameendar.

The efforts of the CBI Team come to naught as they find all their leads disappearing by the day. Every person in the village is petrified of Bahubali and his cronies. Getting someone to be a witness seems to be a far fetched idea. None of them are willing to even speak to the team. Their main lead, Deepu’s maternal uncle is first threatened and then killed along with his kid. That leaves them with Jhamunia (Reema Sen) who is again threatened first and then the goons chop her tongue off. Their last straw would be Geeta (Bipasha Basu), Pratap’s ex flame and Ajat Shatru’s current wife who can be their only hope.

Priyadarshan’s last attempt at making a Drama would have been Virasat (1997) preceded by Kaala Pani (1996) and Gardish (1993). His attempts @ serious cinema and not slapstick have yielded much better results to date. Wonder why he doesn’t stick to something that he is good at. Its probably the typical case of having tasted blood with Hera Pheri (2000) and then living in the illusion that comedy is exactly what he is cut out for. Aakrosh marks Priyadarshan’s reasonably successful return to a genre of films that he is more suited for. Although the movie is extremely stretched out for over 2.5 hours, it still delivers a strong story line. It could have done without the meandering about in the first half and been delivered in a much more compact fashion. But I guess Priyan was quite rusty (13 years) and took a while to get into the groove. Way off from his best performance to date for sure. There are several editing and consistency flaws in the movie. Akshaye Khanna is shown coming into Jhanjhar in a First Class Compartment but gets out of an AC compartment.

Ajay Devgn has definitely come of age over his past few movies. Yet another solid performance with little or no constipated looks. However, all the others with the exception of Paresh Rawal are sad to say the least. Paresh Rawal once again comes on tops and shows us why he is probably the most versatile actor of our time. His execution of Ajat Shatru really makes one cringe in a way only a good villain can. Akshaye Khanna tries very hard but falls woefully short. Bipasha Basu as always is furniture – good looking furniture if it makes her feel better that is. Moreover, one cannot help but draw similarities with the likes of Mississippi Burning. Overall not 2 great a movie. I would give it 4 on 10.