Review of Amar Akbar Anthony

Introduction

Considered to be one of the best classics from the world of Indian cinema. This movie is actually shown in film schools around the world as it contains the formula that all Indian films continue to use with sucess. Amar, Akbar and Anthony shares with the audience great screwball comedy and melodrama under a very simple approach: Use unqualified logic in dealing with the `it could happen` situation.

That makes this film a masterpiece and makes us realize why the majority of us do go to see a film. Escapism is part of our experience when viewing an Indian film, and this film is filled with it. The situations presented in this movie are quite extraordinary but they are closely followed and are finally tied together when the film reaches its climax. This is due to a great use of film narrative which motivates us into watching. With great performances from the whole cast and a fine screenplay which keeps the viewers active and never fails to bore or divert from the main plot.

The majority of Indian audiences love the odd escapism as a `realistic` film is lived in our everyday lives. Cinema is the only option for most people to escape from reality just for a couple of hours. The same rules applies to Hollywood films otherwise why would movies like Independence Day (1994), Mission Impossible 2 (2000) or Jurassic Park (1993) be such massive hits around the world dispite their weak plots?

Although this film has some continuity problems it can be overlooked as it was shot on an extremely low budget and in low time. Music is also at its best with timeless classic`s like `My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves`, `Pardah Hai Pardah`, and of course the famous song `Amar Akbar Anthony`. The film also has a fine background score that was later on abused by many films which had used the track.

The star of the film is Amitabh Bachchan as Anthony, as he gives one of the best performances in his career. The scene with him and the mirror is a classic and shows the talent he is able to portray. Many remember Amitabh Bachchan as Anthony bhai and some even call him that to this day.

Overall this is a film that all films fans must watch to understand and enjoy the rules and way of conventional Hindi cinema that Manmohan Desai had established during the 1970`s which is still used in the 21st century.

Video

The film is presented in its original framed aspect ratio, which is in 1.33:1, a full screen transfer. Therefore cropping is not an issue here. The picture displays small signs of film grain but no compression artefacts are seen and sharpness seen on this transfer presents us with clear and cinematic images that have never been seen before and marks a welcome into your homes for the first time ever.

The picture displays neat information that is clear to understand. The print used for this DVD does have its problem due to age as some marks and dust are visible but they don`t seem to be interruptive as you already have knowledge that the film is over twenty years old. This is the best print of the film seen in ages on a home format and makes a welcome change from all those VHS and Indian satellite channels which have shown this film in poor and disturbing quality. The pervious DVD release of this film from Baba Digital was very disturbing and very abusive to the film and the DVD format. Thankfully DEI have resorted the film as best one could.

The film originally was shot on Eastman colour yet when the film was first viewed on cinema it appeared to have muted colour. I would assume that this is a result of the low budget the film was shot on or the intention of the director. Whatever the case the transfer on this DVD shows the film with muted colours, which was seen on the cinema and represents the original colour saturation of the film. The colour fidelity seen on this DVD is well represented and doesn`t really have a problem during the majority of the film`s duration.

There are instances of some brown and reddish hues on a couple of scenes due to the age of the original negative, and I never really did find the scenes disruptive. Shimmering is mildly present but not as troubling. Contrast and dark details are very good displaying many shades of black and white. Dark scenes are very easy to understand and show no signs of any problems seen on the Baba Digital DVD version of this film.

The film has a very high average bit rate peaking around 7Mbit/sec and gives the reason why the picture information is excellent.

Audio

If there was one small problem that this DVD has it is in the sound department. The original mono sound, presented in 2ch Dolby Digital, is at times very clear and audible but again due to the original negative and age the sound does have some hissing and crackling that can be heard during some scenes. Also some instances of sound dropouts are heard and test your patience. An example of these problems can be heard during the introduction of the three main characters in chapter 5.

Still the sound does its job but I can`t help thinking that another negative could have been obtained with sound free from all the problems heard on this DVD. But I then remember that the Baba Digital DVD version had really poor sound quality and this DEI version is definitely an improvement on it.

Features

The menus are well animated with soundtrack and clips of the film being played. The menus are thematic in design and are very easy to navigate over. Also the DVD has English subtitles, which are optional and are well written.

Conclusion

The film print is the best seen on a home format and done on the best possible transfer that DEI could offer. The sound might be a problem to some but to me it was a small problem related to the age of the negative and not the transfer. I was really pleased with this DVD, and many hard-core fans of this film will be too...