Movie: Amar Akbar Anthony
Rating: 2/5
Banner: Mythri Movie Makers
Cast: Ravi Teja, Ileana, Sunil, Vennala Kishore, Satya, Ravi Prakash, Tarun Arora, Aditya Menon, Abhimamyu Singh, Vikramjit, Rajveer Singh, Shiyaji Shinde, Subhalekha Sudhakar, Laya and others
Story: Sreenu Vaitla, Vamsi Rajesh Kondaveeti
Cinematography: Venkat C Dileep
Music: S S Thaman
Editor: M R Varma
Art: A S Prakash
Producers: Naveen Yerneni, Y. Ravi Shankar and Mohan Cherukuri
Written and Direction: Sreenu Vaitla
Release date: Nov 16, 2018
Ravi Teja and Sreenu Vaitla have teamed up again after a long gap. Thiers is hit combination. Although both of them are going through bad phase, Mythri Movie Makers, the production house behind this film has made the film get all the required publicity.
Let’s find out whether it is worth all the buzz.
Story:
Amar and Aishu are childhood friends in New York. Their parents are killed by a gang. Amar in his teens kills the guy who attacks Aishu and serves prison for 14 years.
Aishu takes new identity as Pooja. Amar acts like Akbar sometimes, and Anthony the other times. Why? Still, he is trying to take revenge and search for his missing childhood friend Aishu.
Though both Aishu aka Pooja and Amar meet and like each other, they are not aware not of their true identities.
Rest of the movie is all about how they reveal their identity and how Amar takes revenge.
Artistes’ Performances:
Ravi Teja has played a role with three different avatars. As a guy who suffers from split personality, he is believable. He is in his elements in the role of Akbar. Ileana in her second innings is beautiful and has also performed well. Her dubbing is neat.
The film mostly runs on comedy portions. Satya as Paul generates some laughs but his character turns monotonous after a point. Sunil in the second half and Vennela Kishore in the first half provide some comedy but their scenes are not that hilarious.
The villain gang Tarun Arora, Aditya Menon, Abhimamyu Singh and Vikramjit have done just okay job. Former leading actress Laya and her real life daughter make a mark.
Technical Excellence:
The film boasts of good technical and production values. It is lavishly shot in New York and other parts of USA. Cinematography is rich. Thaman’s songs lack appeal.
Highlights:
Lavish production values
Drawback:
Weak narration
Confusing screenplay
Outdated sequences
Weak music
No emotional connectivity
Analysis
After delivering three flops in a row, director Sreenu Vaitla has tried to tell a story that would appeal to today’s audiences. He has selected a point of a guy suffering from dissociative identity disorder aka split personality.
The story line (provided by new writer Vamsi Rajesh) has enough material but the screenplay has turned erratic.
There is too much of build-up has given to hero’s “dissociative identity disorder” but the director has used more to generate comedy rather than using it for revenge theme.
Sreenu Vaitla in his typical style focuses on silly and outdated spoof material just after 20 minutes into the movie and it drags on and on.
The spoof is on Telugu associations in America. He names the association WATA (Whole Andhra Telangana Association) and brings in the characters like Ravi Teja’s Akbar role, Vennela Kishore, Srinivasa Reddy, Jaya Prakash Reddy and Sathya. This thread has made the film a mess.
The moment Vaitla introduces spoof material, it is clear that the novel point he has chosen becomes superficial.
The regular sequences like Vennela Kishore falling for Ileana and she beating him, Sathya imitating KA Paul (a well-known evangelist in Andhra) and Ravi Teja changing his three avatars in comic way prolong the main point and become a torture to watch.
By the time crux of the story is revealed, half of the theater would fall asleep. Even if you wake up suddenly, the story will remain at the same point, because it never proceeds further until the climax.
There is a character of FBI officer played by Abhimanyu Singh. He acts more like a beat constable in Ameerpet than a FBI officer in America. He beats Vennela Kishore, JP, Sathya and Srinivasa Reddy with a stick in FBI interrogation room. What was Sreenu Vaitla thinking? He has insulted the intelligence of audience.
The film’s screenplay is a huge mess. “Amar Akbar Anthony” is neither an entertainer nor it is a revenge drama. It is nothing but a torment for audiences.
Except Ileana’s beauty and lavish production values (entire film is set in USA), nothing is exciting in the film.
Overall, it is another mediocre film from the stable of Sreenu Vaitla. Ravi Teja’s Anthony character says this line: “I am strong, you are strong, and we are all strong. Relax.” But to watch this, you need to be very strong.
Bottom-line: No Relax!