I feel Director E Niwas tried to make a mixed curry sort of a thing with this movie. Most of us have seen ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ and have seen quite a number of times to miss the amazing character Anthony Gonsalves, played by Amitabh Bachchan. The similar way, our hero here is rescued from a street and is brought up by a catholic preacher. What I wonder is, its fine if a kid in the late seventies grew up in a church and still go back to business in the slum, however now it is a different world after all. This film has nothing new to boast of, same kind of storyline, mediocre acting and a shabby treatment of the theme. It is too nostalgic to create even a make belief world.
Rating: 2/5
Whatever, E. Niwas has tried to make a thriller or an action movie (that too, if only he is clear on what he wanted to make), he has failed miserably. It’s no doubt one of those movies that come and disappear into thin air. People go the theatre to watch a movie instead they comeback home fully refreshed with a nice siesta.
Nikhil Dwivedi, Amrita Rao in My Name is Anthony Gonsalves
You still see the similar kind of small time goons with Khol-eyed dons. You have a much used and abused Catholic priest Father Braganza or you give any name you can remember from the older movies, who tires too hard to keep the morality alive in the hero. The similar kind of love in first sight and the twists in turns in the script, not to blame them either (they have copied, oops; have been inspired from their predecessors!). Even you can’t blame the music directors for giving such fleeting music. They have just complimented everything else.
The story revolves around a Bandra kid Anthony Gonsalves played by Debutant Nikhil Dwivedi, who is picked up by a dyed in the role Pawan Malhotra, who playes Sikander Bhai, and is handed over to Father Braganza played by Mithun Chakraborthy to be brought up in his moral guidance. As time moves on, we see Anthony growing up with a dream to make it big in the Film Industry. While he struggles to get a break in the movies, he works in a local pub known as ‘Jimmy’s Pub’ owned by Murtuza Seth, Sikander Bhai, Maqsood and Riyaaz played by Anupam Kher, Pawan Malhotra, Mukesh Tiwari and Daya Shankar Pandey, respectively. As it is normal, they are running their illegal business under the veil of the pub. He eventually meets and falls in love with the lanky and starry-eyed Riya played by Amrita Rao. Riya is by luck or coincidence assists the humming Ms.Bharucha’s played well by the energetic Lillette Dubey. He gets a break in a Hollywood movie that is being made in our Bollywood. Now when the world is all rosy, the time for a twist comes when Anthony notices his godfather Sikander Bhai burying a dead body with Maqsood and Riyaz. He is torn between his aspirations and his past. He is being taunted by the local inspector Khan played by Jaaved Sheikh to tell him the truth on the murder. He is in a dilemmatic situation where he is unable to choose between his godfather and truth. Now, he has to choose between a shining and promising future and his dubious past. The movie ends with quite a noisy climax.
Nikhil Dwivedi, Amrita Rao in My Name is Anthony Gonsalves
There are scenes in the movie that take you back in time. Like, Nikhil mimics Amitabh Bachchan to a perfection and his animated chat with Saurabh shukla is also a nice watch. Even when he gets a lecture from Anil Kapoor who plays himself in the movie about Stanislavski, Nkhil shows remarkable potential. But, all do very little to give any credit to the movie’s performance in the box office. Amrita Rao, though working in a male dominated movie, find her little corner to show her talent. She is gracefully the coy next door girl, unlike one expects the assistant, of a freaky and infectious Lillette Dubey, should have been. All the character artists are experienced actors, who have got themselves a niche in the film industry, but they fail as the clutter of actors looks really like a fish market than a movie.
Nikhil has been compared with Shah Rukh Khan, though only future would show; if this new comer has the diehard potential Shah Rukh had showed during his struggling period. He has tried too hard to get the attention of audience and somehow it hasn’t failed him, though it looks over cooked at many scenes. He definitely is the guy we should look out for in future.
However, we can’t say the same about the movie, if only we had the choice of seeing it in bits and pieces, we would have been better off. At least if you don’t have better things to do this weekend, then you might as well go for it. All in all, after watching it, you might wonder if you want your money back.
Rating: 2/5
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