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Amar Akbar Anthony

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For the Malayalam film, see Amar Akbar Anthony (2015 film). For the Telugu film, see Amar Akbar Anthony (2018 film).

Amar Akbar Anthony
Theatrical release poster
Directed byManmohan Desai
Written byKader Khan (dialogue)
K. K. Shukla (scenario)
Screenplay byPrayag Raj Sharma
Story byJeevanprabha M. Desai
Pushpa Sharma (story idea)
Produced byManmohan Desai
StarringVinod Khanna
Rishi Kapoor
Amitabh Bachchan
Neetu Singh
Parveen Babi
Shabana Azmi
Nirupa Roy
Pran
Jeevan
CinematographyPeter Pereira
Edited byKamlakar Karkhanis
Music byLaxmikant–Pyarelal
Anand Bakshi (lyrics)
Distributed byHirawat Jain & Co.
Release date
  • 27 May 1977 (1977-05-27)
Running time
184 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguagesHindi
Urdu[1][2]
Box officeest. ₹155 million (equivalent to ₹4.3 billion or US$50 million in 2023)[3]

Amar Akbar Anthony is a 1977 Indian Hindi-language masala film directed and produced by Manmohan Desai and written by Kader Khan. Released in India on 27 May 1977, the film stars an ensemble cast of Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Neetu Singh, Parveen Babi, Shabana Azmi, Nirupa Roy, Pran and Jeevan. The plot focuses on three brothers separated in childhood who are adopted by families of different faiths; Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. They grow up to be a police officer, a qawwali singer and the owner of a country bar, respectively. The soundtrack album was composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal and the lyrics were written by Anand Bakshi. The film earned ₹155 million (US$17.69 million) at the Indian box office, becoming the highest-grossing Indian film of that year, alongside Dharam Veer and Hum Kisise Kum Naheen.[3]

Religious tolerance became a landmark theme in Bollywood masala films,[4] building on the masala formula pioneered a few years earlier by Nasir Hussain's Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973).[5][6] Amar Akbar Anthony also had a lasting impact on pop culture with its catchy songs, quotable one-liners, and the character of Anthony Gonsalves (played by Bachchan). It won several awards at the 25th Filmfare Awards, including Best Actor, Best Music Director and Best Editing. It was later remade in Tamil as Shankar Salim Simon (1978), in Telugu as Ram Robert Rahim (1980),[7] and in Malayalam as John Jaffer Janardhanan (1982). In Pakistan, the film was unofficially remade in Punjabi as Akbar Amar Anthony (1978).[8]

Plot

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Kishanlal, a chauffeur, is released from prison on 15 August, 1955, after serving a sentence for the fatal hit-and-run accident committed by his employer, crime lord Robert. Despite Robert's promises, Kishanlal returns home to find his wife Bharati suffering from TB and their three sons starving. Enraged, Kishanlal confronts Robert to beg for his assistance, only to be humiliated, abused and disowned. Turning the tables on Robert's henchmen, Kishanlal escapes in a car loaded with smuggled gold bullion, pursued by Robert's goons.

Arriving home, Kishanlal finds Bharati gone; her suicide note explains her shame and despair. Taking his sons with him, he eludes pursuit to place the boys at the foot of Mahatma Gandhi's statue in Borivali National Park, leaving the eldest in charge. He drives off to mislead Robert's goons, but after a fiery car crash both the police and Robert's people believe Kishanlal and his sons are dead.

The three children become separated. Amar, the eldest, runs after his father, is knocked down by Robert's goons and adopted by Hindu Police Superintendent Khanna. Middle son Anthony goes in search of food for his crying baby brother; left alone, Raju is found and adopted by kindly Muslim tailor Darji Ilahabadi. Returning to find no one, Anthony shelters from the storm outside a nearby Catholic church, falling asleep from exhaustion. The parish priest, Father Gonsalves, discovers him and Bharati's suicide note and adopts him. Each will be reared in the religions of their adoptive fathers: Hindu, Islam and Christianity.

Elsewhere: Bharati is caught in the storm and struck blind by a falling branch - divine punishment for leaving her sons. She is rescued and dropped off home by Mr. Ilahabadi, but cannot see Raju beside him; at home she is told her family is dead. Kishanlal escapes the car crash and finds Robert's gold; returning to the empty park a rich man – he is devastated to be alone.

Twenty-two years pass. Bharati, now a flower seller, is the victim of a hit-and-run accident outside a church and is rushed to a private hospital by Anthony, the moonshiner Robin Hood of the neighborhood. Raju, now called Akbar and a popular Qawwali singer, is at the hospital to romance Dr. Salma Ali because her grumpy father Taiyyab Ali disapproves of him. Amar is the police inspector who arrives to check on the accident case. All three men donating blood to save Bharati's life are unaware they are related. Later, Amar tracks down highway robbers and meets Lakshmi, forced by her abusive, criminal stepmother and stepbrother Ranjeet to act as bait to protect her elderly, wheelchair-bound grandmother. Together they record evidence and arrest the stepmother, and Amar gives refuge to Lakshmi and her grandmother in his home.

With Robert's gold Kishanlal became a wealthy crime lord in his own right. Kidnapping Robert's infant daughter Jenny in revenge for his lost family, he reared her as his 'niece' and sent her to school abroad. He also destroyed Robert's organization, forcing a grovelling Robert to work for him while begging for his daughter's return. In the middle of a smuggling operation Kishanlal's gang are raided by police: in the chaos Robert takes a crate of Kishanlal's smuggled gold and shoots Superintendent Khanna (Amar's 'father'), badly wounding him. With the gold Robert reinstates himself as a crime lord and plans to get Jenny back and kill Kishanlal, also hiring Ranjeet in the process.

Jenny returns from abroad and Anthony falls head over heels in love with her during Easter Sunday's sermon. Bharati, taken hostage by Robert, suffers a minor head injury while escaping; miraculously, her sight is restored at a festival hosted by Akbar in honor of Sai Baba of Shirdi. Further, she identifies Akbar as Raju from a childhood photograph with Mr. Ilahabadi, while he recognizes her as the woman he drove home that fateful night.

Akbar rescues Salma and Taiyyab Ali from a house fire set by Taiyyab's blackmailing former mistress. A grateful Taiyyab gives his permission to Akbar and Salma's marriage, leading to Akbar and Amar discovering they are brothers and Kishanlal and Bharati their parents.

Events take a drastic turn when Kishanlal is double-crossed by Jenny's bodyguard Zebisco, who takes her to Robert in exchange for her hand in marriage. Father Gonsalves and Lakshmi see her abducted, but Lakshmi is also taken by Ranjeet and Robert murders Father Gonsalves – planting Kishanlal's Kali talisman as a 'clue.' Learning of Father Gonsalves' death, Anthony discovers that Kishanlal and Bharati are his parents and Amar and Akbar his brothers.

The brothers take action, infiltrating Robert's mansion. Anthony waylays and impersonates the Catholic priest being taken to marry Jenny to Zebisco. Akbar, made suspicious when strangers try to collect Jenny's wedding dress, disguises himself as an elderly dithering tailor who demands to go with them to make last minute alterations, assisted by his 'wife' Salma – who will alert the girls and help them escape. Amar is the last to show up, disguised as a one-man band. Finally reunited, the three brothers reveal themselves and go after Robert, Zebisco, Ranjeet and the remaining henchmen.

Happy that he is alive, Bharati is distraught to learn Kishanlal will go to prison for his crimes, but he reassures her: their reunited family is the only thing that matters to him. Superintendent Khanna, recovered from Robert's attack, briefly releases Kishanlal so that he may embrace his sons. The film ends with the three brothers joyfully driving into the sunset with their sweethearts.

Cast

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Production

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"You see the whole country of the system is juxtapositioned by the hemoglobin in the atmosphere, because you are a sophisticated rhetorician intoxicated with the exuberance of your own verbosity."

—Anthony Gonsalves, in his monologue preceding the "My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves" sequence[9]

Amar Akbar Anthony has a cinematic antecedent in Yash Chopra's 1965 film Waqt, in which a father's three sons are separated from each other. Waqt also inspired the 1976 super-hit diamond jubilee Pakistani film Talash, starring Shabnam and Nadeem. However, Amar Akbar Anthony was slated to release in 1975, prior to Talash's release.[10]

Prayag Raj wrote the film's screenplay, while Kader Khan wrote the dialogue.[11]

The character of Anthony Gonsalves was named after the famous composer and teacher of the same name, whose pupils included Pyarelal (of Laxmikant–Pyarelal, the composer duo of the film) and R. D. Burman.[12][13] Director Manmohan Desai had planned for Amitabh's character to be named “Anthony Fernandes,” with Bakshi's song entitled “My Name is Anthony Fernandes.” However, the song didn't go well with Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Composer Pyarelal then recalled his famous violin teacher and suggested that the character's last name be changed to “Gonsalves.”[12][14] The nonsensical monologue preceding the "My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves" sequence was taken in part from an 1878 speech by British politician Benjamin Disraeli in reference to W. E. Gladstone.[12]

Filming

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Amar Akbar Anthony was Manmohan Desai's first film as an independent film producer. The film was shot over a month at Ranjit Studios in Mumbai. Some exterior and interior shots were filmed at the Mount Mary Church in Bandra, Mumbai and at the Don Bosco School, Wadala, Mumbai respectively.[12][15] Shooting was scheduled so that the entire cast didn't have to appear together except for the climactic sequence and the title song ("Anhoni Ko Honi"), where they all perform as a group. However, the shooting went over schedule, which required Rishi Kapoor and Shabana Azmi to shoot their scenes separately so they could leave towards the end of production to work on other films.

Analysis

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Amar Akbar Anthony incorporates a strong element of secularism[16] within a Bollywood masala film. Analysts such as Virdi (2003) and Kavoori & Punathambekar (2008) note that the themes of Desai's "magnum opus" include religious pluralism and secular nationalism.[17][18] Philip Lutgendorf hints that the separation of the three children on Indian Independence Day is akin to the Partition of India.[19] Similarly, Vijay Mishra (2013) argues that the film reaffirmed India's "liberal ethos." [20] The three religions represented by the titular characters are the "pillars of the nation:" when they work together, they can restore life to their mother (represented when they donate blood during the opening title sequence) and beat any evil (symbolised by their common villain).[21] The characters' reunion with their parents completes the nationalistic allegory,[17][18] suggesting that what was lost at independence can be regained.[22]

The film's masala style is evident in its plot and characters. According to Varia (2013), Amar Akbar Anthony was conceived as a tragedy but later incorporated many other genres.[23] Dickson (2016) commented that the film featured a plot that was so complex that it would "give even Shakespeare migraines."[24] Some authors also highlight the archetypal character of the suffering and self-sacrificing mother (Roy).[25] However, Dinesh Raheja concludes that "ultimately, the show belongs to Amitabh Bachchan. In a tailor-made role, he has the audience in stitches. Despite his playing an implausible character, one quickly surrenders one's reservations in favour of a rollicking romp."[26]

Music

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Amar Akbar Anthony
Soundtrack album by
Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Released7 January 1977
GenreFeature Film Soundtrack
LabelUniversal Music India
ProducerManmohan Desai

Amar Akbar Anthony's soundtrack was composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, with lyrics penned by Anand Bakshi. It proved as popular and successful as the film itself.[citation needed] The vinyl record, released on Polydor, was the first LP that was coloured pink.[citation needed]

Some of the biggest names in the Indian music industry of the time provided vocals for the songs:

The song "Humko Tumse Ho Gaya Hai Pyar" is notable for bringing Mukesh, Rafi, Kumar and Mangeshkar together for the first and only occasion in their careers.[12] The film also features a comical filmi qawwali entitled "Parda Hai Parda" sung by Rafi,[27] with a single line (for Bachchan) supplied by an uncredited Amit Kumar (Kishore Kumar's son).[28]

Original tracklist[29][30]
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Ye Sach Hai Koi Kahani Nahin"Mohammed Rafi2:22
2."Amar Akbar Anthony"Kishore Kumar, Mahendra Kapoor, Shailendra Singh5:52
3."Humko Tumse Ho Gaya Hai Pyar"Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh7:33
4."Taiyabali Pyar Ka Dushman"Mohammed Rafi4:40
5."Parda Hai Parda"Mohammed Rafi7:59
6."Shirdi Wale Sai Baba"Mohammed Rafi5:52
7."My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves"Kishore Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan5:32

Release

[edit]

The Emergency Period delayed the release of several of Manmohan Desai's films. As a result, four of Desai's films, Dharam Veer, Chacha Bhatija, Parvarish, and Amar Akbar Anthony, were released in 1977.[31][32] Incidentally, all of these would be amongst the top-grossing films of the year.[3]

Marketing

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For the film's marketing, erasers with the images of Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, and Amitabh Bachchan were sold to students.[33] Posters, postcards, and song booklets of the film were sold in shops.[citation needed] Colourful vests and metal crosses that were similar to the ones worn by Bachchan in the film achieved popularity.[citation needed]

Reception

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The film grossed ₹155 million (US$17.69 million) at the Indian box office and was the highest-grossing Bollywood film at the Indian Box Office for the year 1977.[3] It has since been regarded as one of the most iconic films of Indian cinema.[34]

Adjusted for inflation, the film has grossed approximately ₹423 crores ($51 million) as of 2023.

Accolades

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In 2023, Time Out ranked it #10 on its list of the "100 Best Bollywood Movies."[35]

Award Category Recipients and Nominees Results
25th Filmfare Awards Best Actor Amitabh Bachchan Won
Best Music Director Laxmikant–Pyarelal
Best Editing Kamlakar Karkhanis
Best Film Manmohan Desai Nominated
Best Director
Best Lyricist Anand Bakshi for "Parda Hai Parda"
Best Male Playback Singer Mohammed Rafi for "Parda Hai Parda"

Bibliography

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  • Booth, Gregory D. (2008). Behind the curtain: Making music in Mumbai's film studios. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-971665-4.
  • Elison, William; Novetzke, Christian Lee; Rotman, Andy (2016). Amar Akbar Anthony: Bollywood, brotherhood, and the nation. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674504486.
  • Haham, Connie (2006). Enchantment of the mind: Manmohan Desai's films. Roli Books. ISBN 978-81-7436-431-9.

Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ Sadana, Rashmi (2 February 2012). English Heart, Hindi Heartland: The Political Life of Literature in India. University of California Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-520-26957-6. Archived from the original on 31 August 2023. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  2. ^ Elison, William (4 January 2016). Amar Akbar Anthony: Bollywood, Brotherhood, and the Nation. Harvard University Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-674-49599-9. Archived from the original on 31 August 2023. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d "Box office 1977". Box Office India. 2011. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  4. ^ Dwyer, Rachel (2005). 100 Bollywood films. Lotus Collection, Roli Books. p. 14. ISBN 978-81-7436-433-3. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016.
  5. ^ Sharma, Devansh (2 November 2018). "Yaadon Ki Baaraat: Nasir Hussain's 1973 potboiler initiated Hindi cinema's transformation into 'Bollywood'". Firstpost. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  6. ^ Manwani, Akshay (8 January 2018). "Yaadon Ki Baaraat: The quintessential bollywood film". Daily News and Analysis. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  7. ^ ET Bureau (20 September 2008). "Transcending language barrier". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 8 October 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  8. ^ Rabe, Nate (2 September 2017). "Sounds of Lollywood: The big difference between 'Amar Akbar Anthony' and its Pakistani rip-off". Scroll. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  9. ^ Heyman, Michael; Satpathy, Sumanyu; Ravishankar, Anushka (2007). The tenth rasa: An anthology of Indian nonsense. Penguin Books India. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-14-310086-7. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014.
  10. ^ Dasgupta, Rohit K.; Datta, Sangeeta (2019). 100 essential Indian films. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 6. ISBN 9781442277984. Archived from the original on 31 August 2023. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  11. ^ "Excerpt: Amar Akbar Anthony". Mint. 3 August 2013. Archived from the original on 6 August 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  12. ^ a b c d e Roy, Gitanjali (8 May 2013). "10 things you didn't know about Amar Akbar Anthony". NDTV Movies. Archived from the original on 15 July 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
  13. ^ Booth, p. 3
  14. ^ Booth, p. 5
  15. ^ San Miguel, Helio (2012). Mumbai. World Film Locations. Intellect Books. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-84150-632-6.
  16. ^ Mohamed, Khalid (31 January 2018). "Muslims in the movies: The good, the bad, and the Khilji". The Quint. Archived from the original on 2 February 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  17. ^ a b Virdi, Jyotika (2003). The cinematic imagiNation: Indian popular films as social history. Rutgers University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8135-3191-5.
  18. ^ a b Kavoori, Anandam P.; Punathambekar, Aswin (2008). Global Bollywood. NYU Press. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-8147-2944-1.
  19. ^ Lutgendorf, Philip (2014). "Amar Akbar Anthony". Indian cinema. University of Iowa. Archived from the original on 27 June 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  20. ^ Mishra, Vijay (2013). Bollywood cinema: Temples of desire. Routledge. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-135-31099-8.
  21. ^ Damsteegt, Theo, ed. (2003). Heroes and heritage: The protagonist in Indian literature and film. Leiden University. p. 217. ISBN 978-90-5789-090-1.
  22. ^ Nochimson, Martha P. (23 September 2011). World on film: An introduction. John Wiley & Sons. p. 266. ISBN 978-1-4443-5833-9.
  23. ^ Varia, Kush (2013). Bollywood: Gods, glamour, and gossip. Columbia University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-231-50260-3.
  24. ^ Dickson, Andrew (2016). Worlds elsewhere: Journeys around Shakespeare's globe. Henry Holt and Company. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-8050-9735-1. Archived from the original on 31 August 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  25. ^ Breckenridge, Carol A., ed. (1995). Consuming modernity: Public culture in a South Asian world. University of Minnesota Press. p. 166. ISBN 978-0-8166-2305-1.
  26. ^ Raheja, Dinesh (22 March 2003). "Amar Akbar Anthony: Whoop-it-up fun!". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 24 July 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  27. ^ Morcom, Anna (1 January 2007). Hindi film songs and the cinema. Ashgate Publishing. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-7546-5198-7. Archived from the original on 23 March 2016.
  28. ^ Diptakirti Chaudhuri, "Bollygeek: The Crazy Trivia Guide to Bollywood", Hachette India, 2021.
  29. ^ "Amar Akbar Anthony (Original motion picture soundtrack)". Apple Inc. January 1981. Archived from the original on 31 January 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  30. ^ "Amar, Akbar, and Anthony soundtrack credits". IMDb. Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  31. ^ Whitener, Brian (2007). "Amar Akbar Anthony". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 13 November 2007. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  32. ^ Ganti, Tejaswini (5 March 2013). Bollywood: A guidebook to popular Hindi cinema. Routledge. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-415-58384-8.
  33. ^ "100 Filmfare Days: 49- Amar Akbar Anthony". Filmfare. 10 June 2014. Archived from the original on 1 February 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  34. ^ "70 iconic films of Indian cinema". Mint. 18 August 2017. Archived from the original on 26 October 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  35. ^ "The 100 best Bollywood movies". Time Out. 7 February 2023. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
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