Aan - Men At Work is directed by Madhur Bhadarkar, the director of hard hitting fares such as Chandni Bar and Satta. Aan is commercial cinema with the added dose of realism. It displays the activities of cops, their ideologies, political issues, and the mafia.
Aan could have found a place in the record books as one of the better movies made on cops. However, it falls miles short. This is the sole purpose of my review for this dim movie. It had a lot of potential, which could not be executed as well. Govind Nilhani’s Drohkaal and Ardh Satya remain as one of the best movies ever made with cop related themes in the history of Indian cinema. Rajkumar Santoshi’s Khakee was another brilliant example of body beautiful, commercially realistic and perfect execution. Aan however, just fails to leave a mark.
The story is about the relations between the underworld, which includes Irfan Khan and his brother Rahul Dev, a rich businessman Jackie Shroff in connection with Irfan Khan, a rival businessman of Jackie Shroff, Milind Gunaji etc. This whole link is very poorly shot and executed that one hardly pays attention to even remember the names of the characters....like me, I too have forgotten their names lol....aherm anyways, back to the story.
The Mumbai Crime Branch is in poor shape. Shatrughan Sinha is the Sub Insepctor who once a hotshot in his younger years he now has given up all hope of changing society and cleaning it of the underworld. Sunil Shetty is the encounter specialist, who carries with him a hitlist he has made to kill all the crime lords. Paresh Rawal is also a part of the crime branch.
Enter Akshay Kumar the newly promoted Head of the Mumbai Crime Branch; his ideaologies clash with that of the other officers in the Branch and he does things by the book. However, once Millind Gunaji is murdered, things go haywire. In a shootout Paresh Rawal is killed by the person whom Akshay Kumar did not let Sunil kill. Akshay feels partially guilty for his death. Now all hell breaks loose as the three decide to erase the mafia.
The biggest problem with Aan is the story. The story belongs more to a B grade movie rather than a commercial movie. Next, even if the story is poor, the screenplay can improve the situation however, there are very few sequences which keep the viewer enthralled. Casting is another major goof up. Shatrughan is under the orders of Akshay Kumar and has to bear insults from him! That is ridicolous. Also Jackie, Raveena and many others have poor characterisations.
Music is of no importance, the same can be said for Lara Dutta. Aan relies on three performances. Akshay Kumar is dependable and delivers a good performance. Irfan Khan is menacing as the villain but Sunil Shetty again delivers a knockout performance. He is brilliant in his scenes.
Om Puri, Shatrughan Sinha, Paresh Rawal, Jackie Shroff, Lara Dutta, Raveena Tandon - all these in Aan alone are a dream star cast. However, somehow (I seriously don’t know how) they all have poor characterisations.
Dialogues are only good at someplaces and cinematography is of average standard. Aan treads nowhere near what masterpieces like Ardh Satya, Khakee and especially Drohkaal stepped upon.