At the time there must have been a huge buzz surrounding Akayla as it was directed by Ramesh Sippy, who directed Amitabh Bachan in Sholay, Shaan and Shakti. This movie also reunited Big B with Shashi Kapoor, who were last seen in Namak Halaal. Unfortunately the end product is a pretty average effort. To be honest I hadn't seen it in it's entirety for at least a decade.

As a movie it shouldn't have worked at all but it remains watchable thanks to Big B, who carries the movie on his shoulders. He is really intense in this movie, which is what the audience at the time expected at the time from him. That said even he isn't able to salvage the mediocre material. He is supported by a decent cast in supporting roles, consisting of Jackie Shroff, Meenakshi, Amrita Singh and Aditya Pancholi and a special appearance by Helen.

There isn't really a script to speak of really, the entire movie is basically Amitabh confronting the villains again and again. The main villain himself, Keith Stevenson is very weak. I am wondering why the directors went for him when they could have found a better villain like Amrish Puri or Raza Murad etc. Stevenson really hams it up with a double role. The songs are decent, particularly Aag lag jaye, which is a great song.

All in all I think without Big B's performance it would have been a much worse movie than it is.