Amar Akbar Anthony : Movie Review
Director Sreenu Vaitla teams up with his Venky and Dubai Seenu hero Raviteja again. Despite Vaitla’s recent form, Amar Akbar Anthony raised expectations because of Raviteja and interesting promotions. However, the film turned out to be a routine revenge film with Vaitla style of treatment.
What is it about?
Amar (Raviteja) who releases from prison immediately targets people that killed his parents. He also suffers from Dissociate identity disorder which makes him behave like different persons. There is Pooja (Ileana) who also suffers from similar disorder. Are they linked? How does Amar overcome his disorder to avenge the death of his parents?
Performances:
Raviteja plays a passive role that forces him to keep his energy levels down. He is okay as Amar, but looks silly as Anthony and Akbar. Ileana is voluptuous and looks stunning as ever, but she too seems clueless with her act. Sunil enters the scene in the second half, but makes his presence felt with his inimitable comedy. Satya shines among the rest of the comedians. His parody on KA Paul is hilarious. Tarun Arora is okay among the villain gang and Abhimanyu Singh is over the top as FBI officer.
Technicalities:
Sreenu Vaitla is still struggling to get back to form. Amar Akbar Anthony is just a continuation to his last three disastrous outings. He picked up a revenge plot and tried to make it interesting by introducing multiple personality disorder, which didn’t work out due to poor writing. Even comedy scenes are not up to the mark.
Thaman’s music is below average including background score. Dialogues are lengthy and lacked punch. Cinematography is good. Editing goes haywire with too many flashbacks and sequences that end abruptly. Production values are impressive. Producers have spent a lot and didn’t compromise on the quality.
Thumbs Up:
Few comedy scenes
Thumbs Down:
Routine plot
Bad Screenplay
Clueless direction
Music
Analysis:
Sreenu Vaitla is under pressure of delivering a hit after facing humiliating failures with his previous films. This might be the reason why he tries too hard to impress with Amar Akbar Anthony. This could have been a decent film had he kept it simple. Instead, Sreenu Vaitla tried to offer novelty as well as stick to his template comedy so that he could impress entertainment seeking audience and critics as well. Trying too hard may result in clumsy output at times and Amar Akbar Anthony is a classic example for it.
Including many subplots into the main storyline didn’t give enough time to establish the characters. Personality disorder problem which was supposed to be the interesting element in the film makes it all the more confusing and also becomes a joke after a point. Even comedy seems forced as it is out of the sync with rest of the story. Heroine also having some disorder is bit of a stretch, which doesn’t add any value to the movie.
First half is bearable to an extent, but the second half turns ridiculous with pointless scenes stitched together. Thankfully, there is Sunil who offers a few laughs here and there. A sequence involving all the comedians is fun to watch. But the protagonist’s multiple personality disorder has been dealt in a ridiculous fashion and it is surprising that it didn’t seem stupid for any of the experienced actors or technicians.
Sreenu Vaitla should have made a simple laugh riot like his previous films with Raviteja. Trying to execute something different from his usual style resulted in an incoherent mess that even Raviteja and a bunch of seasoned comedians couldn’t save. On the whole, it is yet another disappointment from the director who just doesn’t know how to come out of the hole.
Verdict: Revenge Against Audience!
