''Aks'' () is an Indian 2001

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

-language supernatural

action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (born 7 July 1963) is an Indian film director, occasional actor and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and directing ''Rang De Basanti'' (2006) and ''Bhaag Milkha Bhaag'' (2013). He is the writer and director of ...

, and starring Amitabh Bachchan,

Raveena Tandon Raveena Tandon (born 26 October 1972) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. The daughter of director Ravi Tandon, she made her acting debut in the 1991 action film '' Patthar Ke Phool'', which won her the Filmfare Award for New Face ...

, and

Manoj Bajpayee Manoj Bajpayee (born 23 April 1969), also transliterated as Manoj Bajpai, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi cinema and has also done Telugu and Tamil language films. Regarded as one of the finest actors of Hindi cinema, he i ...

in leading roles. The music was composed by

Anu Malik Anwar Sardar "Anu" Malik (born 2 November 1960) is an Indian music composer, singer, music arranger and score composer. He is an Indian National Award and Filmfare Award winning musician, who primarily composes music for the Hindi film indus ...

. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics and being a box office flop, it won three awards at the 47th Filmfare Awards: Best Actor — Critics (Bachchan), Special Award Performance (Tandon), and Best Sound Design (Ranjan). Bachchan and Bajpayee were nominated for the Best Actor and

Best Villain Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporation ...

at the same ceremony as well.

Plot synopsis

Aks is a supernatural thriller centering on two characters― a cop named Manu Verma ( Amitabh Bachchan) and a shadowy killer named Raghavan (

). During a conference in Budapest, the defence minister is found murdered. Manu Verma investigates the case and discovers that the culprit is Raghavan Ghatge, a sociopathic serial killer who works as a hitman. Raghavan is caught. As he is about to be executed by hanging, his spirit goes into Manu's body and starts to manipulate the cop into performing acts that Raghavan wanted to perform. But he couldn't save himself. He goes to another town but is not able to find peace. Eventually, Raghavan's spirit leaves Manu's body. Everything seems to be normal. Manu & his family go on vacation. Unfortunately, Raghavan's spirit is still alive and possesses Manu's friend.

Cast

* Amitabh Bachchan as Inspector Manu Verma *

as Neeta *

as Raghavan Ghatge *

Nandita Das Nandita Das (born 7 November 1969) is an Indian actress and director. She has acted in over 40 feature films in ten different languages. Das appeared in the films ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth'' (1998), '' Bawandar'' (2000), '' Kannathil Muthamittal' ...

as Supriya Verma *

K.K. Raina K. K. Raina is an Indian film, television and theatre character actor and award-winning script writer, who is best known for his roles as ''Juror #8'' in the 1986 film ''Ek Ruka Hua Faisla'', a remake of 12 Angry Men, and Byomkesh Bakshi's ass ...

as Mahadevan Ghatge *

Tanvi Azmi Tanvi Azmi is an Indian film and television actress. Early life and career She was born to Marathi-Hindi actress Usha Kiran and Manohar Kher. Azmi portrayed a troubled doctor in the tele-series, ''Jeevanrekha'' and as a young widow in telefil ...

as Madhu Pradhan *

Vineet Kumar Vineet Kumar is an Indian actor. The veteran actor from National School of Drama, is known for his works in Hindi, Telugu, and English language films and Television. He is best known for his works in films such as '' Masaan'','' Drohkaal'', ' ...

as Narang *

Pramod Moutho Pramod Moutho (born 7 May 1955) is an Indian film and television actor. He has appeared as a villain in number of noted Bollywood films, like '' Khalnayak'' (1993), '' Dilwale'' (1994), ''Raja Hindustani'' (1996), '' Mehndi'' (1998), Gadar'' ...

as Justice Balwant Chaudhry *

Salim Ghouse Salim Ahmad Ghouse (10 January 1952 – 28 April 2022) was an Indian film, television and theatre actor, theatre director, and martial artist. He has acted in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and English films. Early life Salim Ghouse was born ...

as Blind Guru *

Veerendra Saxena Virendra Saxena (born 23 November 1951) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi theatre, film, and television. He is an alumnus of the National School of Drama. Saxena is known for his character roles as well as his unique voice. He has acted in ...

as Hanif Kasai *

Vijay Raaz Vijay Raaz (born 5 June 1963) is an Indian actor, film director and narrator, who predominantly appears in Hindi films. He debuted with ''Bhopal Express'' (1999) and since worked in more than 90 films. His breakthrough came when he played the ...

as Yeda Yakub *

Vrajesh Hirjee Vrajesh Hirjee (born 16 June 1971) is an Indian film and television actor. He is also a script writer,dubbing artist and doing commentary in vivo pro kabbadi league season 9. He has acted Hindi language films like ''Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein'', ...

as RAW Officer 1 *

Gajraj Rao Gajraj Rao is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Hindi films. He is widely known for his performance in the comedy drama film '' Badhaai Ho'' for which he also won a Filmfare Award. He debuted in 1994 with a minor role in Shekhar Kapu ...

as RAW Officer 2 *

Mithilesh Chaturvedi Mithilesh Chaturvedi (15 October 1954 – 3 August 2022) was an Indian film and theatre actor. Biography Chaturvedi worked in '' Koi... Mil Gaya'', '' Gadar: Ek Prem Katha'', ''Krrish'', '' Satya'', '' Mohalla Assi'', and web series like '' ...

as PM's Aide *

Amol Palekar Amol Palekar (born 24 November 1944) is an Indian actor, director and producer of Hindi and Marathi cinema. Career Palekar studied fine arts at the Sir JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, and commenced his artistic career as a painter. As a painter, he ...

as Minister

Production

''Aks'' is the directorial debut of

. Amitabh Bachchan sported a French beard to portray his character.

Music

The songs were composed by

(while the

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...

was composed by

Ranjit Barot Ranjit Barot (born 1959) is an Indian film score composer, music director, music arranger, drummer and singer based in Mumbai, India. He is a longtime associate of A. R. Rahman. He has been described by guitar legend John McLaughlin as "one o ...

). Lyrics for the songs were penned by

Gulzar Sampooran Singh Kalra (born 18 August 1934), known professionally as Gulzar, is an Indian Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this ...

. Sunder of ''Planet Bollywood'' praised the album for being experimental and creative in nature and gave it a rating of 9 out of 10. Sukanya Verma of

Rediff Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 e ...

appreciated the album saying that Aks is a "captivating album with funky, experimental, new age music".

Reception

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' praised the cinematography and music of the film along with the acting performances of all actors, specially Amitabh Bachchan. Taran Adarsh of

Bollywood Hungama Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is a Bollywood entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provide ...

praised the visuals and music of the film but criticized the film for being too complicated and slow. Taran gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2000s Hindi-language films 2001 films 2001 action thriller films 2000s supernatural horror films Films scored by Anu Malik Films directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Indian action thriller films Indian supernatural horror films 2001 directorial debut films