Aakrosh Movie Review, Rating

The pertinent issue of honour killing has ‘inspired’ scriptwriter Robin Bhatt to filch almost shot by shot Alan Parker’s Mississippi Burning . Parker’s 1988 cult film dealt with racism. Bhatt and director Priyadarshan have smartly replaced Parker’s basic premise with cast conflict in Bihar.

It’s easy to see why Aakrosh was made. Priyadarshan, lately mocked as a director of bad comedies, wants to be taken seriously as a relevant filmmaker. For Ajay, an intense Gangaajal was long overdue. Bipasha Basu has still not given up trying to prove she can act. Akshaye Khanna can act, but he needs work to prove as much.

Aakrosh is a project that let each of these names take a shot at whatever they respectively wanted.

You sense Priyadarshan and Bhatt’s remix mantra for a homegrown ‘ Bihar Burning’ of sorts as the film moves.

The racist Ku Klux Clan from the original becomes the casteist Shool Sena in Aakrosh . The script reveals the Sena has killed a lower caste boy for daring to elope with an upper caste girl he loved. This basic plot opens up as two CBI officers ( Ajay Devgn and Akshaye Khanna) come to the smalltown backdrop of the incident to probe the situation. Just like R. Lee Ermey’s Mayor Tilman in Mississippi Burning , there’s a crooked cop in the village ( played by Paresh Rawal) who uses his power to help the Sena silence any note of dissent among the lower class.

Aakrosh works fine as long as it is blindly copying Mississippi Burning . Most among Gen Now audiences may perhaps not be familiar with the 1988 classic, so Priyadarshan’s film would regale as a taut sociopolitical thriller in most parts.

The problem starts when the makers of Aakrosh try to weave in a very filmy love track between CBI officer Pratap ( Ajay), one of the investigating officers, and Geeta ( Bipasha Basu), a local woman with a traumatic past. The film could have also avoided the fits of random melodrama, Sameera Reddy’s totally unnecessary item naach , and the forgettable Ajay- Bipasha love song.

Technically, Aakrosh should appeal to lovers of gritty cinema. The film does have its moments. But most of these are thanks to a talented lead cast.

Ajay as Pratap is in his elements as the smart cop who loves to live by brawn power. Akshaye was cut out for his thinking cop act, too. The heroines, Bipasha Basu and Amita Pathak, look too plastic to be believable as smalltown girls.