Amar Akbar Anthony

Amar Akbar Anthony is pure Hindi film entertainment, an interesting lost-and-found story, and a wonderful message of unity and religious pluralism through the story of three brothers who are separated in childhood and grow up in different families, each adopting a different religion: Amar (Hinduism), Akbar (Islam) and Anthony (Christianity). The film is a true Hindi mainstream masala film, it has comedy and drama, some melodrama, action and romance, good music, song and dance, and altogether three hours of wholesome entertainment for the entire family. All of it wouldn't be as effective though if not for its soul, which is evident in every frame. Manmohan Desai does a great job directing this film, giving it heart and making it much more than just another formula film. The plot is twisted and moves at an incredibly fast pace, and the viewers are kept on the edge of their seats as the proceedings unfold.

The film's three main players work well together and individually. Their stories are interesting and involving. It is Amitabh Bachchan who gives the film its comic tone with his brilliant performance in one of his most memorable roles as Anthony. His presence is impeccable. Vinod Khanna is excellent as Amar, successfully creating a tough screen persona. Rishi Kapoor, as Akbar, is very competent in a role that suits him to a T. Among the leading ladies, they're all pretty and convincing, and have great chemistry with their male pairings. Parveen Babi was always very good opposite Bachchan, the same is for the bubbly Neetu Singh with her real-life husband Rishi, while Shabana Azmi plays against type in a glamorous and slightly insignificant role and she is stunning. The film has a myriad of great character actors, with Pran's performance shining through as the trio's father. All of them make Amar Akbar Anothony, both the characters and the film, a treasure to behold.

Amar, Akbar and Anthony are separated from their family and from each other as small children, and each is raised separately and in a different faith. Amar is raised a Hindu and grows up to become a police officer, Akbar is raised a Muslim and grows up to become a Qawaali singer whilst Anthony is raised Christian and grows up to be a small time hoodlum.

Most of the movie is focussed on the character of Anthony, which is fine by me since he is played by Amitabh Bachchan - surely the most charismatic actor India has ever produced.

As adults, none of the brothers have any idea of their familial origins, but believe their parents to be dead. To make matters worse, each parent thinks the other is dead and both think their children are dead. It must be said that they didn't go to great lengths to discover this, but the film would hardly have worked if they had so that's one piece of disbelief that has to be suspended. It's not the last one, as the film is wholly guided by a series of coincidences that gradually has the various members of the family crossing each others paths. I suppose one is encouraged to believe that these coincidences are orchestrated by the fates or a higher power, but putting it down to dramatic convenience worked just as well for me.

Also brought into the plot are the loves of the three brothers, for the requisite romance and feminine wisdom. The boys are lucky enough to have secured the affections of a bevy of beauties, and the actresses add a nice touch of glamour and colour to the film. In addition to and intersecting with these we have the evil villain of the piece, carrying the terribly intimidating name of "Robert".

At 175 minutes, Amar Akbar Anthony has plenty of time to flesh out its characters and develop the plot in a well paced fashion. The movie goes through many different moods and emotions, but after the first 15 minutes of melodrama the tone is generally kept light and pleasant.

As well as the romance and drama, the movie has a few moments where it shifts into action territory - Anthony especially has a knack for getting into a scuffle. The fights are very imaginatively choreographed but terribly executed, looking very staged and faked. This all adds to the fun of them though. There's also the songs of course, though not too many - especially in the first half of the film. Some of these are very catchy and the dance choreography cheerfully engaging.

Although it has something of an ensemble cast, there is no question that the movie belongs to Amitabh. His character is the most complicated and interesting, and his performance the most subtle and engaging. He gets all the best lines, too. He won the "best actor" award for this role, and it is largely for his performance that the movie is considered an Indian classic.

Like many Indian movies that run in the three hour range, there's something in AAA for everybody, and Amitabh's charisma especially means that it never grows wearisome. Although the first half an hour didn't have me terribly engaged, the film does just keep getting better and better (and more imaginative) as it progresses. I had to constantly keep upgrading my rating for the film as I watched. By the time the movie reaches its climax, it has managed to weave everything together so well that I was thoroughly delighted to be watching it.

Recommended!

Amar , Akbar, Anthony whenever I hear any of those three names I think of one of the greatest movies I've seen. I'm 15 minutes into the movie and I'm already in tears, I couldn't believe a movie like this had so much impact at the first 15-20 minutes. This movie was all around a good movie and is a must see. It starts out with a poor male & female who have three children and the poor man is in trouble seeking out some way to get money for his wife's sickness plus food for his children. When he goes to Robert he begs and the emotion he put into that movie was so heavy you could feel the pain the poor man was going trough. Robert was actual one of those guys that made me say "Just kill this guy already". Usually I like negative rolls and support the negative rolls but Robert was doing a amazing job. The poor man escapes from the sharp claws from Robert he leaves with a car which was filled with gold. He stops by his house to find a "sucide" letter from his wife so he takes his kids and drives off to somewhere then put's his kids in some random park. The bad guys start chasing him so Robert tries to lose em but get's tied up in a car accident which he survived I must say that was a very fake part in the movie but every movie has a flaw eh? Oh well anyways he finds the gold which surprisingly isn't burned and runs around the street with it trying to avoid the cops. He goes to the park to see that his kids are nowhere to be found he starts yelling Aman..? He dosen't yell the other two names so it's him screaming AMAN! Akbar was raised by a Muslim by the time he found the child he was going to drive home but to see Akbar's mom in the street then the Muslim guy takes her to her home but she's blind! She has no idea she is in present with one of her kids. Anthony faints at a local church and Amar was found by a police officer. All three of them grew up with pride of there religion so here we are somewhat 20 years later.

The mom loses bunch of blood then is rushed to her hospital but what the kids don't know is that they are brothers and they really don't know there real mother nor does the mother know her kids due to her being blind. So Amar, Akbar , and Anthony all end up at the same place in the hospital because they have the same blood type of there mother(NO DUH!!!) so they donate blood all to there mom then here comes the opening cerdits with a very touching song. We get to the journey of the three young men and we find out that Akbar & Anthony are very close(Well at least in the first half) so anyways Anthony always refers to the old woman as his mother and so do the other two I think. Anthony also calls Akbar & Amar as his brothers but let's get back to there real dad it seems his the evil guy now LMFAO! But Robert get's away with bunch of gold and Anthony somehow helps him out for a little bit in the movie but what happens? Will Robert regain control of money and power again? Will Amar, Akbar, Anthony find the truth? Will the mom ever be able to see her children again? Watch the blockbuster to find out.

Also the girl who fell in love with Amar did horrible acting at first she said she stole money because there family was poor but she looked like she was giving false information(worst crying in a movie I've seen) I wouldn't believe her no matter what but it turns out she told the truth. I was shocked..

Amar akbar anthony is brilliant cinema and full of entertainment. Directed by Manmohan Desai who has made films like coolie, mard and naseeb. Once again Manmohan directs a fabulous movie with action, comesy and family drama. Vinod plays Amar a hindu character and gives a good performance. Rishi plays Akbar and gives a lovable performance. Amitabh plays Anthony and gives an outstanding performance. Amitabh received a Best actor award for his role of Anthony. Shabana Azmi gives a decent performance, Neetu Singh is alright. Parveen babi is lovely, Pran and Nirupa Roy are supporting roles in this movie and give good performances. The movie has loads of great songs, my favorite is My name is Anthony Gonsalves.

A true Manmohan Desai film tot he hilt...

This was one of the late '70s movies whose mega success defied the logic of all movie pundits. A typical lost-and-found formula of three brothers (brought up in three different religions); the movie stands out for brilliant individual performances and "seeti"(whistle) comedy and dialogues. Besides the All-Time Amitabh in his memorable role as 'Anthony' and star-studded cast, it is the crispy one-liners and dialogues that lifted this movie above all. Practically every song in this movie was big hit e.g. 'Anhonee ko Honee' 'My name is Anthony...', 'Tayab Ali', to name a few. Don't miss to catch all the patented dialogues by the Villains - Pran, Jeevan.

Back in my school, I remember my classmates reeling out dialogues at the back of their mind.

A must have "Timepass" collection