and 2016 continues to be the year of finding 'gems' in the film world. Keeping my promise to myself and watching more independent films than I have previously watched. Today I spent a wonderful ninety minutes watching a film that to be honest, needs more people to talk about it. I spend a lot of time reading about films, watching films, checking out trailers and going through press release articles to find diamonds among the sea of movies out there.But the only place I had heard about todays film was a solitary Twitter account that I had been following for a little while.
The film is Amar Akbar and Tony,
Written and Directed by Atul Malhotra and is available on iTunes,Amazon,Google Play,Virgin Media,Blinkbox,Talk Talk and Wuaki platforms. So what made the film a gem, but more to the point, what is Amar Akbar and Tony about? Well I am never one to give away plot points for a film, part of the beauty of discovering new films is to learn the story as you go alone with the characters. But to summarize the plot. I will borrow from the Internet Movie Database summary and describe it a realistic, multicultural coming-of age comedy drama following the lives of three childhood friends as they stumble through life from their carefree twenties into adulthood. Set in present-day London but beginning in the eighties. Such a charming film.
Amar Akbar and Tony had be by moment one with its realistic humour rather than scripted humour (although Im sure there was a script), the humour all felt very realistic, and the sort of dialogue and situations that could happen to any of us. We follow lifelong friends Amar (played by Rez Kempton), Akbar (played by Sam Vincenti) and Tony (played by Martin Delaney) who all come off as perfectly likable people straight off the bat. But don't just think that the film is all comedy. Amar Akbar and Tony (the film) is part comedy, but with a huge injection of drama mixed perfectly into a feature length film. It was strange once I reached the end of the film, which although lasted only an hour and a half, has left the characters extremely memorable in the same way, had I watched a 10 hour mini series.
There are no filler scenes in the film, and these are charactersI will think of when someone asks me for my favourite films I've seen. I was asked today what I felt the film reminded me of and I came up with Part East is East, Part Shameless and perhaps even Part This Is England. But Amar Akbar and Tony is such a fresh film and its been a total pleasure to have watched it today.
