Aankhen

1993 177’ col/scope Hindi d David Dhawan pc Chiragdeep International p Pahlaj Nihalani s Anees Bazmee lyr Indivar c Siba Mishra m Bappi Lahiri lp Govinda, Chunkey Pandey, Raj Babbar, Shilpa Shirodkar, Rageshwari, Ritu Shivpuri, Kadar Khan, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Bindu, Shakti Kapoor, Gulshan Grover, Dina Pathak

Munnu and Bunnu (Govinda, Pandey) form a slapstick comedy duo as the wayward sons of the jeweller Hasmukh (Khan). They become entangled in a plot to create via plastic surgery a double for the Chief Minister (Babbar in a dual role) in order to arrange the release of the criminal Natwar Shyam (Grover). The first half of the film consists solely of the duo’s antics as they fall for Priya and Ritu (Rageshwari, Shivpuri). In the second half, Munnu is abducted by the criminals and loses his memory, whereupon the film produces two more character doubles, Hasmukh’s long-lost twin (Khan again) and his son Gaurishankar (Govinda again). Gaurishankar is wrongly kidnapped along with his father and grandmother (Pathak), and eventually the two brothers, aided by a wayward policeman, Pyare (Amrapurkar), get the criminals. The film continued the enormous 90s success of lowbrow, rapidly cut action musicals with strident soundtracks featuring Govinda. However, the film’s main feature is that it seems to be in the grip of a compulsion to repeat, obsessively doubling its characters.

Film