Retro-Review

           With nothing much to do we were surfing the various videos on the youtube. Nowadays youtube has this facility where the preview of the video is shown for about thirty seconds. These thirty seconds help you decide whether you want to watch the show or not. On this particular day my browsing stopped at a particular video. The singer started crooning ♪My name is Anthony Gonzales.....♪ years rolled back and in an unspoken communication between my wife and I, we decided to watch that beautiful movie "Amar Akbar Anthony". Popcorn was catered for, blinds lowered and we were ready to immerse ourselves into the world of fantasy of Manmohan Desai....(God Bless his soul).

 

           Had so much water flown under the bridge that 45 years had elapsed since the release of this movie?.  In 1977 I was a young lad of barely 15 summers and my wife was also that much younger...(She is averse to my revealing her age publicly- unless it has financial implications). Of course at that time she did'nt have an idea that she would be tying the knot with me. All the actors were 45 years younger the world was that much more younger. Movie tickets cost - I think Rs 10 for the balcony and for the lower stall Rs 1.75.  Money was hard to come by even if it meant shelling out such a meagre amount. One had to indulge in various devious means such as selling old newspapers on the sly to cater for the tickets. And this involved having an accomplice who would recieve the papers and go to the raddi-wala. It was fun until we got caught and both our mothers were weeping on our 'supposed' graduation to bigger crimes as we grew older. Considering our financial situation you could guess which stall we would prefer to watch the movie. 

         The movie was a diamond jubilee and ran for more than 75 weeks at the box office. The movie was so popular that we had to stand in lines in the fuggy atmosphere of belches and farts -  maybe for two shows in a row if the booking window closed on us. Were we that patient 45 years back? Of course as we grew we found that befriending a lady to buy us tickets reduced our waiting period (That is right they used to have seperate lines for ladies)

        The movie starts off innocuously enough with someone being released from the jail after serving time. As the camera pans onto the ex prisoner's face we realise that it is Pran who (May he rest in peace) has fathered three children off the character of Nirupa Roy - that ever suffering quintessential mother of Indian cinema - who could do no wrong. Though I believe in real life she was quite severe on her daughter -in law. One is loath to speak ill of the dead ( may she have the best of the other world). Pran having served time for someone else feels wronged and goes to meet the Boss (Jeevan - who incidentally kicked the bucket). The boss has exotic tastes and likes his boots cleaned with whisky. Pran steals from his boss and his family is seperated during a storm with the eldest son being raised as a hindu the second son as a christian and  the third son as a muslim.

            The mother who runs off leaving her three children to commit suicide - because she was unable to look after her family- is hit by a tree branch in Mumbai (those days there was still some forest cover in Mumbai) during  a storm and loses her eyesight. After a suitable amount of time has elapsed the eldest son becomes Vinod Khanna (Died of testicular Cancer) God bless him, the second son is Amitabh bachhan (Anthony) and the third son is Rishi Kapoor - Akbar(Died of Blood cancer) Om Shanti. 

            God Allah and Bhagwan play a pivotal role in the movie and the three brothers of different religions end up donating blood to the flower girl (Nirupa Roy). Blood is still red -no matter - what  religion you follow. Amar, Akbar and Anthony go about their ways and meet the three leading ladies Shabana Azmi (Amar) Neetu Singh (Akbar) Parveen Babi (Died a lonely death- May her soul find Rest) (Anthony). 

            A series of incidents, God's intervention and Shirdi Sai Baba (Nirupa Roy gets back her sight) ensure that the family re-unite finally. With the spurned lover Zebisko losing out both in the movie and real life when he died in 1985 (God needed him in Heaven). 

            The movie finally comes to an end with the song ♪ Amar, Akbar Anthony  ♪ being sung lustily the family smiling and general happiness everywhere. It was one of the few movies  in the recent times that I watched without a break - even to go to the restroom.  I am sure that the movie if released today would still be a hit (Notwithstanding the boycott culture).

            45 years have passed and the movie is still capable of keeping the audience (Read - My wife and I) spellbound. 45 years have changed us beyond recognition and hopefully the next few years will further change us . For they do say - "Life is one huge cycle"