Ankhen is overall a very well made spy movie, especially for its time. Ramanand Sagar was a very good director, and here he was aided by some innovative technological advances which enhanced the narrative and made the movie more interesting than it would have been. The fantastic sets, the props, the visuals are used to the greatest effect and create an overall entertaining picture. Of course, technically too there are some glitches here and there, which is to be expected in a Hindi movie of its time, but overall everything is quite well done and is impressive to see. The film is well scripted; it is patriotic, and this aspect of the film is a bit overdone at places, but what makes it memorable is the tension and the mystery. The romantic sequences are not given that much importance, but are very effective nonetheless. Towards the later half when the corrupted organisation kidnaps a kid and demands his mother to cooperate with them, the film becomes far more enjoyable as it is filled with great sequences of suspense. Towards the end the film gets a tad too high on action and is a little messy for my taste, but the story was concluded well enough.
Those were the days when Dharmendra appeared in some really good films and was given good roles, which did not require him to ham. He is restrained and effective as Sunil, and is generally a very good lead for this film. Mala Sinha is one of my favourite actresses of that period, and she is excellent as the Indian-Japanese woman, who is smart, assertive and sensitive at the same time. The supporting cast includes many famous faces, among them the great Lalita Pawar who appears in a rather unusual role. At first it's very surprising to see that she is not cast as a typical loud mom, and although in the second half she partially reprises this image as part of her character's mission, she generally makes for a very good vicious agent. While you would expect Mehmood to be cast against type as well, he's not actually and his role is a comic one, which is well played but unsuitable for a movie of this sort. Among the songs, they are very well composed by Ravi. My favourite number is "Gairon Pe Karam". To sum it up, Ankhen is another very good film by Ramanand Sagar. Somehow it is not that famous today despite being quite inventive, but I recommend it.
