Thursday, March 01, 2007

THAT’S HOW WE LAUGH THE DAY AWAY…

…in the merry ol’ land of Aaa… Welcome to the wonderful, hilarious, wacky, weird, crazy, and absolutely DELIGHTFUL world of Aaa. A world in which anything… and I do mean anything… can happen. You can become rich or poor in the blink of an eyelid, thanks to boxes of gold left lying about in cars. Everyone lives in peace and harmony, regardless of religion or ethnicity. Nothing has to make sense – it’s all serendipity and wild creativity. You can even use your platform sandals to get you out of a sticky situation.

Now this is a big one: the very person you fall madly in love with is GUARANTEED to fall madly in love with you right back! And, you can go for a sweet little pony ride with him/her on the beach. That’s not all – wonderful, wonderful miracles happen, leaving everyone happy at the end of the day… The delightful world of Aaa is the perfect place to go after a long hard day’s work – it’ll lift your spirits, make you laugh and fill your heart with silly glee – cos everything is just so darned ridiculous!

For the past two nights, I’ve spent my post-work nights in the land of Aaa, and gone off to a sound sleep with a silly grin on my face. I need more films like ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ in my life! And now for some (illustrated) thoughts.

The Pran-tastic one (as I like to fondly call him) is again deliciously OTT… he’s definitely more fun as a rich man than as a poor one, though.


The drama between Robert and Kishenlal, which is at the heart of this film, begins with this lecture on the ‘duty’ of all good employees (i.e. to go to jail even if your boss is the guilty party)… Robert was just so crazy ("yes, you are my daughter, come my daughter, you must believe me")– I also love how they got his twin brother Albert into the story then promptly threw him away...
I love Vinod Khanna (the YOUNG Vinod Khanna, I mean, not the older Madhuri-snogging one) – I just want to drown in those magnificent brown eyes of his… bliss! He was very cute as the strict policeman – not as cute as Amitji in ‘Zanjeer’ (but then who could rival that?) – but bahut cute nonetheless.

I call this ‘high on love’

You haven’t lived till you’ve seen Amitji wiggle his little tush to ‘My Name is Anthony Gonsalves’. Absolutely priceless.

Everyone really got into the craziness in this film – but somehow, the fact that Parveen Babi did (in view of her real life story) makes me feel kinda sad… aawww…

This was funny… AB does such fab comedy. I loved him in this film – and he had great fun doing the film, you could tell.

I call this ‘high on love Part 2’… I think Parveen gave Amitji's butt a little tap as he swung over her... or maybe I was just a bit high on the love myself...

I like this little touch – the ecstatic tourist… hopefully I’ll be one of those soon (but not quite so frantic, hopefully)...

Two things, Shabana – you’re sitting waaaay too close to Vinod for my liking and… I want your sari!!

Like, get a room, guys!! See how Rishi just carried his leg and laid it on Neetu’s… ahn ahn. Ko easy. Rishi, I know she was bahut cute and you obviously already had dreams of marriage and kids with her - or were you already married by this time (shame her marriage into the almighty Kapoor family had to end her movie career, while you got to continue romancing leading ladies until it was distinctly disturbing, though)… but still… sheesh!

Zebestic Zebesko… the only Zebesko is town. Definitely one of the funniest characters in this movie – the earnest look on his face on his ‘wedding’ day is hilarious. Zebesko, you really felt you were laying on some sweet raps here, huh?

The sweet raps obviously didn’t work, now it’s shaadi ‘by force’ huh? Zebestic Zebesko!!

Yes, do something, you cute little monkey! I could really see Rishi’s appeal in this film, younger, sweeter, livelier and cuter. Too too cute – pity he didn’t realize when his leading man days were like, over… but then, to be fair, which actor does (in any movie industry)?

This just makes me happy… the title song is such a great song – all the songs in this movie are great, actually...

The only thing better than three long-lost bhais finding each other? Three long-lost bhais simultaneously finding each other AND finding their perfect-match biwis! If only real life could be so perfect - well, not really cos that would be weird, but... you get my point!

Aawww… you should see the silly grin on my face just looking at this!

This is a very popular Bollywood film in Nigeria – definitely one of the five best-known Bollywood movies – I am aware of two comedians who have in recent times used part of the film’s title song to produce Bollywood-themed comedy songs. I might have seen ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ as a child, but prolly not – I think I’d have remembered at least part of it. I absolutely LOVED it, obviously. Again I say: I need more films like ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ in my life.

PS Too many pictures for one post, I know... just couldn't resist...

10 comments:

Sanket Vyas said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE this movie - one of my top 5 Bollywood flicks of all time. Every pair of lovers (including the underused Vinod Khanna & Shabana Azmi) were just perfect. The comedy scenes with AB were golden and the songs - oh my the songs. They were all hits and for trivia's sake - this is the first time AB was given singing credits on an album for 'My name is Anthony Gonsalves'.

Daddy's Girl said...

Thanks Sanket for that interesting bit of trivia. He did such a terrific job with that song. Like you, I love everything about this film. It's so delightful. I recently heard that AB is quite a good singer - I didn't much like his singing in 'Pukar' so I'm really interested in hearing some of the other songs he's done.

Sanket Vyas said...

Oops - just a little clarification. AB didn't actually sing the song in AAA - that was done by Kishore Kumar (voice of AB for most of his career). He just got credits for the talking he did between verses. Although I am one of the biggest AB fans on the planet I was never too enamored with his singing - probably because I am also one of the biggest Kishore Kumar fans on the planet as well and they go so well together.

In my opinion I think AB's best sung songs are from Mr. Natwarlal (a children's song that is just wonderful) and from Silsila (the classic 'Rang Barse'). Cheers!

Daddy's Girl said...

Thanks for the clarification Sanket! Kishore Kumar was an amazing singer.

Aparna said...

Yeah I love this movie...I can see it a whole load of times more than what I have seen it....
Thanks for the pictures!!!

Daddy's Girl said...

@aparna: I think anyone with a lively sense of humour would love this movie - am yet to meet anyone who doesn't.

Maja said...

Awww, yay for AAA love! Doesn't it just put you in the best mood? I even liked Pran in this one ;) The music was great and there's just no beating that whole giant egg / My name is Anthony Gonsalves / mirror twin sequence!

Daddy's Girl said...

@maja, it so does put you in the best mood. A cinematic upper for sure!

chioma said...

Like you said this is one of the most popular Indian films in Naija..I am sure you watched it as a child.everyone did lol. I loved the anthony gonsalves song also...lovely. and of course the hospital scene where they all said their names one by one.."amar" "akbar" "anthony"..classic..

Daddy's Girl said...

Chioma, yeah the hospital scene kinda rocks (except for the bright red fake blood). I like that scene... in fact this film is chockful of good scenes. Thanks for stopping by my Bollyblog dear, despite your not being as into it as I am, can you feel the Bolly-love? Woo hoo, go Bollywood, go Bollywood, go go (don't mind me, I'm just trying to make myself happy).