Movie Review: KHAKEE (2004)

So 2004 was a trend of crap loads of Cop movies in Bollywood. Like a LOT! Some were crap, others were decent. KHAKEE is one of the latter, with a decent story, great performances and some pretty awesome writing.

Rating: 3 Out Of 5 Stars

decent watch….

KHAKEE is essentially about a special team of Indian Police Officers being put together for the special mission of escorting an alleged terrorist from one city to another, in order to stand trial for his crimes. Simple yea? Not really. The unlikely team of heroes, face impossible obstacles and a conspiracy brewing around them, which doomed their mission from the start, until they take matters into their own hands.

It’s the stuff of great Hollywood crime dramas! The Legendary Amitabh Bachchan sport a grey Moustache in this, as a typical cop approaching retirement, who’s never made any progress in his career due to being honest and never ‘working the system’. His honesty is rewarded by always being looked over for a promotion, given to more corrupt cops… until this mission arrives, of which he’s made the team leader.

His team consists of Akshay Kumar’s Shekhar, the epitome of a corrupt cop, who treats the uniform more as a means of perks than a duty. Then we’ve got the wet behind his ears rookie cop in Tusshar. Along with some lowly constables and an unlikely tag-along witness played by Aishwarya Rai… and the team is set!

KHAKEE is by no means perfect. There’s some stupidity, some clichéd scenes, some dialogue that’s eye roll worthy, however, all in all it’s entertaining. It’s mostly the story that keeps one engaged through out the movie. And the pacing is good enough that there is little chance of getting bored.

Ajay Devgan plays the big badass villain, hunting this Police Team down, and he’s awesome at it. He’s such a good villain, that it puts to shame his typical ‘hero’ roles. Amitabh is always awesome, so no need to even talk about his performance. Akshay has been known for playing ‘hero’ cops, so he changes it up this time by being a bad cop and a worse person. Tusshar, being the youngest actor of the group, shows it by playing a young cop who’s all naïve and about truth, justice and blah blah… It’s great.

KHAKEE also screws with the formula a little, because when you expect the movie to be over, it’s continues in a completely different trajectory and ends up being a decent watch… up to and including the cynical and cyclical ending.

Get The DVD