1977 Directed by: Manmohan Desai Music: Laxmikant-Pyarelal Starring: Pran, Nirupa Roy, Jeevan, Rishi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Parveen Babi, Shabana, Neetu Singh, Azmi, Mukri |
Like Sholay,
this is another of the movies from the 70s that has not only weathered
well, but has became so famous that I’m sure everyone knows some of the
dialogues, if not the story (now that can be confusing!).
Amar Akbar Anthony
was inspired madness. This was entertainment at its silliest best.
Three brothers, three girlfriends, three religions; two villains (well,
one not-so-villainish), a blind mother, a suicide letter; multiple
blood donations and Easter eggs. Throw in a cobra, a miracle, a locket,
and more than enough plot twists to fuel an entire year of masala
films. Add cart loads of fun. Forget the plot – there wasn’t any. Or
perhaps, there was too much of it. It had a little bit of everything for
everyone, and Manmohan Desai pinned it all to the anchor of Amitabh’s
Anthony Gonsalvez (if you will forgive the mixed metaphor).
Kishenlal
(Pran) is released from jail and goes home to find his children hungry
and his wife Bharati (Nirupa Roy) suffering from tuberculosis. He had
taken the rap for his boss, Robert (Jeevan at his stylised best), with
the latter promising to take care of his family. When he goes to Robert
for restitution, he is humiliated and rebuffed. Infuriated by the
callousness, Kishenlal tries to kill Robert but is forced to run for his
life. When he comes home, he finds that Bharati, unwilling to be a
burden on him, has left their three children behind and gone away to
commit suicide. (She does leave him a note, though.)
Kishenlal
has no time to mourn her; he picks up his children and using one of
Robert’s cars as a getaway vehicle leaves home. Leaving his children in a
park (under Gandhiji’s statue, on August 15 – nice touch!) in his
eldest son’s care, he tries to lead his pursuers away from his children.
In the ensuing chase, the car crashes, and Kishenlal is presumed dead.
In
the meantime, the children have separated – the eldest, Amar, knocked
down by a car, is adopted by a police inspector (Kamal Kapoor); the
middle one, Anthony, running through the rain to seek help, finally
faints outside a church, and is taken in by the large-hearted Catholic
priest (Nasir Hussain); the baby left under the statue in the park, is
picked up by a kind Muslim tailor (Shivraj), who also rescues Bharati,
who had been struck by a tree in the storm and is now blind. When
Kishenlal, who has escaped the crash, comes back to look for his sons,
the park is empty. The disintegration of the family is complete.
Cue to twenty two years later (Idle
comment no.1: No one seems to be sure just how many years have passed.
Kishenlal says 20, Anthony (and the priest) say 22, and Jenny says 25 - I
suppose it is not important!): Bharati, now a flower seller, has
fainted outside the church and is taken by Anthony (Amitabh Bachchan),
the bootlegging Robin Hood of the neighbourhood, to hospital, where
Akbar (Rishi Kapoor) is busy romancing Dr Salma Ali (Neetu Singh).
Inspector Amar (Vinod Khanna) comes to the hospital to check on the
accident case, and we see all three giving blood (at the same time!) to
the woman who is their mother… only none of them know her, or each
other.
And all this happens pre-credits! (Probably the longest pre-credit sequence in the history of cinema.)
And all this happens pre-credits! (Probably the longest pre-credit sequence in the history of cinema.)
If you have been confused by the story so far, just wait, and you will be confused a lot more.
Akbar
and Anthony are friends, and Anthony is invited to the former’s
quawwali programme. He comes along bringing Bharati with him. And we are
treated to the energetic Purdah hai purdah. Salma
is there with her father and his harem. Akbar takes the opportunity to
proudly and publicly declare his love for her, much to her father’s
annoyance.
Meanwhile, Inspector Amar, tracking a highway robbery case, comes across Lakshmi (Shabana Azmi) who is being forced by her stepmother (Nadira in a guest appearance) and stepbrother Ranjeet (Ranjeet) to act as decoy.
The wheel of fortune has turned for both Kishenlal and Robert; the former gets his start in life with the smuggled gold that was in Robert’s car; the latter, his daughter having been kidnapped by Kishenlal has now come down in the world. But it doesn’t take long for fickle fate to change sides; the police arrive on the scene and in the ensuing chaos, Robert escapes with a crateful of Kishenlal’s gold. (Idle comment no.2: Why are people so casually careless with their property? Everyone seems to be misplacing a crate or two of gold all the time. And why is it that the gold is so awfully light that they can just tuck a crate under their arms and run?)
Meanwhile, Inspector Amar, tracking a highway robbery case, comes across Lakshmi (Shabana Azmi) who is being forced by her stepmother (Nadira in a guest appearance) and stepbrother Ranjeet (Ranjeet) to act as decoy.
The wheel of fortune has turned for both Kishenlal and Robert; the former gets his start in life with the smuggled gold that was in Robert’s car; the latter, his daughter having been kidnapped by Kishenlal has now come down in the world. But it doesn’t take long for fickle fate to change sides; the police arrive on the scene and in the ensuing chaos, Robert escapes with a crateful of Kishenlal’s gold. (Idle comment no.2: Why are people so casually careless with their property? Everyone seems to be misplacing a crate or two of gold all the time. And why is it that the gold is so awfully light that they can just tuck a crate under their arms and run?)
While escaping, he runs into Anthony, who insists that he has only seen men run in this fashion for two reasons.
Inspector
Amar is on the lookout for the man who shot his foster father; word
comes in that Robert was seen with Anthony. And so Amar goes to visit
Anthony.
Alas, that doesn’t end well for Anthony.
On the way to court, Anthony is kidnapped; he meets a man who asks him about Robert. A handful of chilli powder, a whirring fan, a quick fight later, Anthony is back in jail. But he is puzzled.
Learning that Robert had shot the Superintendent of police (Amar's foster father) Anthony is quick to take Amar to his hideout under the Church. Only, Robert has flown the coop, and the Father is very angry with Anthony. He advises Anthony to find a good girl and settle down. Even as Anthony is telling the priest what sort of a girl he would like to marry, Robert’s daughter Jenny, who has been brought up by Kishenlal, is arriving in Bombay.
Alas, that doesn’t end well for Anthony.
On the way to court, Anthony is kidnapped; he meets a man who asks him about Robert. A handful of chilli powder, a whirring fan, a quick fight later, Anthony is back in jail. But he is puzzled.
Learning that Robert had shot the Superintendent of police (Amar's foster father) Anthony is quick to take Amar to his hideout under the Church. Only, Robert has flown the coop, and the Father is very angry with Anthony. He advises Anthony to find a good girl and settle down. Even as Anthony is telling the priest what sort of a girl he would like to marry, Robert’s daughter Jenny, who has been brought up by Kishenlal, is arriving in Bombay.
And Anthony, meeting her in church, falls head over heels in love with her.
He even woos her with a song; only she is guarded by Zebisco, a man who takes ‘body' guard a bit too literally. Leading to what is possibly the best comedy scene of all time…
He even woos her with a song; only she is guarded by Zebisco, a man who takes ‘body' guard a bit too literally. Leading to what is possibly the best comedy scene of all time…
Soon the brothers are singing and romancing their respective lady loves – in a boat, in a horse chariot, on a train, on the beach, in the garden…
But Taiyab Ali has Akbar beaten up by thugs; Zebisco is intent on marrying Jenny, and is willing to broker a deal with Robert toward that end; and Ranjeet is still at large; in fact, he has joined Robert’s gang. Meanwhile, Bharati is under the impression that her husband and sons are dead; Kishenlal presumes Bharati is dead, and his sons missing. Jenny, Robert’s daughter, considers Robert her father’s murderer, but learns that the man she is marrying is one of Kishenlal's missing sons. The brothers are merrily crossing paths with each other, and with their parents without knowing who they really are.
But Taiyab Ali has Akbar beaten up by thugs; Zebisco is intent on marrying Jenny, and is willing to broker a deal with Robert toward that end; and Ranjeet is still at large; in fact, he has joined Robert’s gang. Meanwhile, Bharati is under the impression that her husband and sons are dead; Kishenlal presumes Bharati is dead, and his sons missing. Jenny, Robert’s daughter, considers Robert her father’s murderer, but learns that the man she is marrying is one of Kishenlal's missing sons. The brothers are merrily crossing paths with each other, and with their parents without knowing who they really are.
Anthony
gets to become a scarecrow and a fake priest, while Akbar gets to
pretend to be his own uncle. And Amar stands in for an entire wedding
band. Confused much? (Idle comment No.3: It says much for Manmohan Desai's firm grip over the direction and Prayag Raj's writing ability that the many disparate strands eventually became a cohesive whole.)
Will Kishenlal reunite with Bharati and his sons? Will Jenny go back to her real father and hate Kishenlal for abducting her? Will Taiyeb Ali allow Akbar to marry Salma? Will son punish his father for his foster-father's death? And will someone tell me who thought up the plot line (such as it is)?
This was a film that demanded that you not only suspend disbelief, but also forget what ‘logic’ meant. With a frontline cast of Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan (the heroines, Parveen Babi, Neetu Singh and Shabana Azmi were mere eye candy), Manmohan Desai took the audience on a rollicking rollercoaster ride of implausibility. But it was so quick-paced, and the editing (Kamlakar) so controlled, that you had no time to say ‘Huh, what?!’ before all hell breaks loose in a madcap finale, to the musical accompaniment by Akbar – talk about Nero fiddling while Rome burnt.
Will Kishenlal reunite with Bharati and his sons? Will Jenny go back to her real father and hate Kishenlal for abducting her? Will Taiyeb Ali allow Akbar to marry Salma? Will son punish his father for his foster-father's death? And will someone tell me who thought up the plot line (such as it is)?
This was a film that demanded that you not only suspend disbelief, but also forget what ‘logic’ meant. With a frontline cast of Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan (the heroines, Parveen Babi, Neetu Singh and Shabana Azmi were mere eye candy), Manmohan Desai took the audience on a rollicking rollercoaster ride of implausibility. But it was so quick-paced, and the editing (Kamlakar) so controlled, that you had no time to say ‘Huh, what?!’ before all hell breaks loose in a madcap finale, to the musical accompaniment by Akbar – talk about Nero fiddling while Rome burnt.
Vinod
Khanna had the most sedate role as Amar, but it was important because
his sobriety balanced Amitabh’s over-the-top Anthony. However, he gets
to exhibit his fun side in the climax when he proceeds to show up as a one-man band, playing in accompaniment to the brothers' song.
Rishi-Neetu’s
Akbar-Salma pairing was probably the cutest love story in the mix.
Akbar, as the entertainer, also had the pick of the film’s songs – from
the foot-tapping quawwali Purdah hai purdah to the (real) eunuch-accompanied Taiyeb Ali pyar ka dushman to the mellifluous Sai Bhajan Shirdi waale Sai Baba. (Idle
comment no.4: Please watch the twin flames emanate from Saibaba’s eyes
and proceed toward Bharati’s without falling over laughing.)
Akbar
wore colourful lungis and floral shirts and prayer caps with such
insouciance that he made it fashionable. A thread-like mouche and
chewing paan had never looked so cool before.
But the film truly belonged to
Amitabh Bachchan. He legitimised, nay, celebrated the use of Bambaiyya
Hindi, and his characterisation gave Hindi films one of its most
enduring (and endearing) characters – Anthony Gonsalvez. Whether it was
his jack-in-the-box impersonation out of an Easter Egg (dressed in a
caricature of formal tails and white gloves) or his Father Anthony,
complete with grey beard, cassock and rosary, his loud wooing of his
Jenny (a beautiful Parveen Babi) or his sympathetic bandaging of his
reflection in the mirror – Amitabh was beyond awesome! No one ever
scaled those heights of slapstick quite so seriously before. And he
fought well (and only lost to his older brother), and danced, and
romanced, and cried a little bit too.
The
film crowned Amitabh Bachchan as an ‘One Man Variety Show’ as Ramesh
Sippy called him. He was no longer the ‘Angry Young Man’ alone. His
flair for comedy had been exploited before, most notably by Hrishikesh
Mukherjee, but it was Manmohan Desai who gave him a vehicle that
revealed his flair for absurdity. Amar Akbar Anthony was a comedy of errors – on high speed.
Add Pran, Nirupa Roy, Jeevan, and Helen in a cameo, a plethora of hummable songs, including the completely absurd My name is Anthony Gonsalvez interspersed with even more absurd English dialogues, and you had a ‘to-tul taime pass’ film on your hands.
Call
it improbable, implausible, impossible even, but the absolutely
escapist fare left the audience gasping breathlessly in the aisles – if
this was mindless entertainment, then ladle out some more!
Trivia:
Rishi Kapoor shopped for his famous see-through shirts and netted vests
at Bombay’s Fashion Street, and for chappals from Linking Road, Bandra,
to become the young Muslim quawwal Akbar Illahabadi.
Parveen
Babi was in splits when a journalist, accompanied by a photographer
from Filmfare went to interview her during the shooting. A combination
of his first name and the photographer’s last name was the name of
Mukri’s character in the film – Taiyeb Ali.
Amitabh’s comic monologues in the middle of My name is Anthony Gonsalvez were his own creation, and
his idea. The original character was named Anthony Fernandez, and based
on a man whom director Manmohan Desai knew in his youth. Somehow the
name didn’t catch anyone’s fancy, and when Laxmikant-Pyarelal were
scoring the music, it was their suggestion that the last name be changed
to Gonsalvez – thus paying tribute to Pyarelal’s old violin teacher,
and an important, but unknown film musician, the real Anthony Gonsalvez.
ps:
I’m sorry to inform bollyviewer that Nirupa Roy was at the heights of
carelessness in this film; she misplaced not one, not two, but three children!
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