Khakee

Story:

Khakee is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language neo-noir action thriller film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and written by Santoshi and Sridhar Raghavan around an Indian police team on a mission to escort an accused terrorist from a small town in Maharashtra to Mumbai. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Aishwarya Rai and Tusshar Kapoor. It was produced by Keshu Ramsay and distributed by Eros International, with cinematography handled by K. V. Anand.

PLOT

Dr. Iqbal Ansari is an ISI agent captured in connection with riots. Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG Shrikant Naidu assembles a team of five police personnel to bring Dr. Ansari safely from Chandangarh to Mumbai. The team consists of DSP Anant Kumar Srivastava, Senior Inspector Shekhar Verma, Sub-Inspector Ashwin Gupte and constables Kamlesh Sawant and Gajanan Mhatre.
A criminal, Yashwant Aangre tracks the team. The team proceeds to Chandangarh, and comes across school teacher Mahalakshmi, who informs them about suspected terrorists who stayed incognito in her school premises. Soon, along with Ansari and Mahalakshmi, they leave for Mumbai by road. Angre distracts the team and tries to foil the mission repeatedly but fails.

On route, the van breaks down, and the team halts at a secluded bungalow. Anant calls Naidu to appraise him of the events and send a police team. Anant now remembers Aangre, a corrupt and ruthless ex-cop or ex-inspector, who was dismissed and imprisoned after Anant caught him killing five innocent men in a fake encounter during the bank robbery.

The team is soon attacked at the bungalow by Aangre and his men. Shekhar tries to surrender Ansari to Aangre, but Anant objects. At this point, the plot turns when Ansari tells them that the terrorists are there to kill him, not free him. He was a doctor in Chandangarh when journalist Bhaskar Joshi informed him that the communal riots were engineered by minister Deodhar, who killed a few social workers who had compiled evidence that would’ve jailed him. Bhaskar had the file containing the evidence and wanted the post-mortem reports from Ansari, to expose Deodhar but was killed, and when Ansari refused to cooperate with the wrongdoers, corrupt cops framed him as a terrorist.

Aangre and his men enter the house, but Shekhar and Ashwin cause an explosion, and the team manages to escape, but Aangre shoots Ansari. Anant then realizes that Naidu is a corrupt cop in hand with Deodhar and Aangre.

Ansari is taken to the hospital. Anant gives the others the option to leave the mission, but everyone stands by him. The team soon plan to get away on an empty train to Mumbai with the recovering Ansari. Aangre’s gang arrives, but the team has taken precautions. Kamlesh drives away from the station in the police van as a decoy. Shekhar takes control of the train, and the team boards it. Kamlesh abandons the van and runs to catch the moving train, but is shot dead by Aangre.

Upon reaching Mumbai, Ansari dies. Deodhar tempts Anant to toe the line, but Anant refuses. The team finds the file through journalist Bhaskar’s son. Shekhar and Mahalakshmi go to the General post office and recover the file, but Aangre ambushes them. Shekhar is lured into a stadium where it is revealed that Mahalakshmi is Aangre’s girlfriend and was planted on the team by Aangre to track their location. Shekhar is killed in the stadium and dies but not before he places a call to Anant, letting him know that Mahalakshmi is a double agent.

Anant and Ashwin now attack Naidu and make him spill the beans; they locate Aangre by following Mahalakshmi. In a shootout, Aangre uses Mahalakshmi as a shield, and she dies. Anant chases Aangre and nabs him with a huge police force while Ashwin recovers the file.

With compelling evidence from the file, the court convicts Aangre, Deodhar and Naidu for life, much to the relief of Ansari’s family, who is no longer branded a traitor and terrorist, for whom Anant promises to take care of Ansari’s son. On route jail, Aangre sees the bolts holding his handcuffs loose. He grabs a rifle and tries to escape, only to realize the rifle is empty. Ashwin shoots Aangre and shows him the screws of the bolts, indicating that this was a setup for an encounter and revenge for the deaths of Kamlesh, Ansari, & Shekkar. He then calls headquarters, informing them that Aangre has been fatally wounded while trying to escape from custody “despite warning” while Aangre eventually succumbs to his wounds, as the credits roll.