Akshay Kumar did some Good films in the 90’s which unfortunately didn't fare well at the box office. Particularly between 1997–99 he gave a dozen flops. One of his most unfortunate flop was the 1999 film Sangharsh.
Sangharsh is a remake of Oscar winning film The Silence of the Lambs, with Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta in the lead roles and Ashutosh Rana in the negative role. Akshay Kumar plays a scientist unjustly put behind bars and Preity Zinta a police officer who are trying to stop an evil man from killing children for his occult practices. Both Akshay and Preity are very convincing in their performances but it is Ashutosh Rana who will give chills down your spine. There is a scene in the film where Preity goes to capture him but he dons a female getup and makes a frightening noice. It will scare your soul for ages.
The music for such a dark film is surprisingly good. Two songs are on the top of my playlist. Mujhe Raat din bas mujhe chahti ho and pahli pahli baar baliye. The music is soothing and could be heard indefinite number of times.
Unfortunately the film released when Akshay was going through a bad patch and despite getting good reviews and a Filmfare Best Villain award for Ashutosh Rana the film failed at the box office. This film is one of the most underrated film and performance of Akshay Kumar.