Kishen Lal, a driver working for a smuggler Robert on the run from the police and leaves his three sons in a park. All of them are found and raised separately-the eldest becomes a Hindu police officer, the youngest becomes a Muslim tailor/singer and the middle son becomes a Christian hooligan. Years later, they find themselves all donating blood to a woman in a hospital by coincidence. All three meet and fall in love with different women, but when one of them is kidnapped by Robert (whose fortunes have changed again and is now a bigger smuggler), they all (women included) become involved in the struggle for her release… The Chauffeur of Robert, Kishanlal, takes the blame for him, and pleads guilty for rash driving resulting in death, and is sentenced. Kishanlal had undertaken to do this only when Robert promised that he will look after his family, consisting of wife, Bharti, and three sons, Amar, Raju, and Chhotey. When Kishanlal completes his jail term and returns home, he is shocked to find his family living a destitute life, his wife is seriously ill, and his children have not been fed for several days. His attempts to get some compensation from Robert are in vain, so he steals his vehicle and runs for it. When he reaches home, he finds a suicide note from Bharti. He picks up his three children, and drives on until he reaches a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. He asks his sons to look after each other, and he will be back soon. Kishanlal drives the stolen car, and is chased by Robert's men. Kishanlal meets with an accident, which destroys the car, but he survives. When he regains his senses he finds that the trunk of the car had contained a box of gold bars. He picks these up, and runs to where he had left his sons behind. Alas, his sons are no longer there. Kishan re-establishes himself as a rich man, and continues to look for his children. Bharti, meanwhile meets with an accident, and loses her vision. She thinks that her husband and children all perished in the vehicle accident. The children are all separated, Amar is picked up and adopted by a Hindu Police Inspector Khanna; Chhotey is picked up by a Catholic Priest; while Raju is picked by a Ilahabadi, a Muslim tailor. Will Kishan and Bharti ever meet again in their life, and/or be reunited with their sons? 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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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".<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>Recommended! Manmohan Desai never mixed logic in his films but made good entertainers especially in 1970s, AAA was the first film with Amitabh Bachchan. The film is another film on long lost and found theme The film is treated more on a lighthearted note, Amitabh's character called Anthony who is a rogue and runs illegal liqour business, however he is brought up by a priest. while Vinod Khanna playing Amar is brought up by A Policeman and he becomes a tailor while Rishi gets brought up by a Muslim tailor. The first half is more on the romance of all 3 characters, and some funny scenes between Vinod Khanna and Amitabh. Strangely all three hardly interact much, while AB and Rishi have a cordial friendship, AB and Vinod Khanna have 2-3 scenes,There is also a scene where all 3 give blood to the mother(watch it to believe). The film also has villain Jeevan with a big gang, and also Hercules There are several scenes to remember, like AB-Vinod fight, AB drunk act(which was shot without the director just by AB and Kader Khan who was dialogue writer), The first scene of AB and Pran. There are many songs however, in fact 2 songs My Name and Humo Tumse come within a short gap yet the film is entertaining and keeps you entertained throughout It does get lengthy but those days films were made mostly which were 3 hours. Direction by MDK is good Music by LP is memorable, be it Kishore's My Name is Anthony, Mohammad Rafi's duets Parda and Sai Baba, the combo song Humko Tumse which for the first time brought Mukesh, Rafi and Kishore in one song, The title song too is good.<br/><br/>Amitabh Bachchan is simply terrific in his role, it seems second skin, In the same year he starred in Parvarish with MDk where he had a cop role, This film also won him his first best actor award. Rishi Kapoor is good too in his act Vinod Khanna is good in a serious role, in the same year he and Amitabh worked in Parvarish where they played diverse roles. Amongst heroines, Shabana Azmi is okay, Neetu Singh is fun loving while Parveen Babi is good Pran is good as usual, Jeevan is good in his own style, Ranjeet, Yusuf Khan, Nazir Hussain are all good, Nirupa Roy is as usual
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321 weeks ago