Rajkumar Santoshi, a name synonymous with hard-hitting films (Ghayal, Damini, Ghatak, Pukar, Lajja, The Legend of Bhagat Singh… to name a few) has always had a track record of films that have entertained and enlightened at the same time.

His latest venture Khakee has been in news right from its inception. Right from it's mega star cast to Tusshar Kapoor replacing Akshaye Khanna, to Aishwarya Rai's accident at an outdoor location, to it's supposed race with Madhur Bhandarkar's Aan (based on the a similar theme), to it's release clashing with Kal Ho Naa Ho, to it's postponement to a later date, Khakee has had it's share of controversies.

With Khakee, Santoshi attempts to focus on the functioning of the police force system not showing them in a completely negative outlook. The elaborate tagline of the film reads something like this...

“Our enemy is nameless and faceless. We don't know their numbers except that they are sure to be many.
We don't know their weapons except that they are sure to be more sophisticated than ours.
We don't know when, where and how they will attack except that they will attack for sure.
All we know is that they are desperate, and willing to do anything, go to any extreme."

The storyline

What started as a routine mission of shifting an ISI terrorist Iqbal Ansari (Atul Kulkarni) from Chandanghad to Mumbai, ended as a nightmare. The first escort team of police officers was ambushed midway, blown to bits. But a brave officer managed to ensure that Ansari did not escape. Now another team was being sent to do this job from Mumbai.

This crucial assignment was being given to DCP Anant Shrivastav "The Professor" (Amitabh Bachchan), on the eve of his daughter's wedding. The officer, in the winter of his career, was a failure in the eyes of the establishment and more important in his own. This was his one last chance to do something and prove himself.

Street-smart, brave but rotten to the core, Sr. Inspector Shekhar Sachdev (Akshay Kumar), for whom the lines between good and bad, right and wrong had blurred a long time ago, was also forced on this mission. He didn't want to be a part of any suicide mission, but had no choice.

The third on the list was Sub-Inspector Ashwin Gupte (Tusshar Kapoor), a young middle class rookie officer on his first serious assignment. He was going to find out the hard way that there was a massive difference between training school and the ground reality of the harsh, corrupt and a violent world out there.

These three officers accompanied by two constables were now given the charge of escorting the dreaded terrorist and a crucial witness in the case against him, from Chandanghad to Mumbai. But someone out there didn't want them to get to Mumbai. A nameless, faceless enemy who was always one step ahead of them and would do all he could…to stop them. Thus a three-day assignment would become a never-ending nightmare. An overnight journey would become a journey into a dark world of brutality, corruption, conspiracies and terror.

A journey into fear where