Amar Akbar Anthony 1977

Story:

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 and Pran. 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.

PLOT

On 15 August 1955, the lower middle-class Kishanlal is released from prison after taking the blame for a fatal hit-and-run accident committed by the merciless crime lord Robert, for whom he used to work as a chauffeur. Despite Robert’s assurance that his family’s welfare will be taken care of, Kishanlal returns home to find his wife Bharati suffering from tuberculosis and their three infant sons malnourished. Enraged, Kishanlal storms off to Robert’s mansion and begs for his assistance and restitution, but is cruelly humiliated and rebuffed by Robert. A vengeful Kishanlal raises a fight with Robert’s gang, but is forced to run for his life in one of Robert’s cars loaded with smuggled gold bullion while being pursued by Robert’s men. After arriving back home, Kishanlal finds his sons abandoned by Bharati with a suicide note stating that she is unwilling to be a burden on him and has therefore run away from home to end her life. Kishanlal picks up his sons and uses Robert’s car as a getaway vehicle to rush to the Borivali National Park to avoid capture. While there, he leaves his sons under the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in his oldest son’s care and drives off to lead Robert’s henchmen away from them before being presumed dead by both Robert’s henchmen and the police in the ensuing fiery car accident.

In the meantime, the three children have been separated – the oldest one, Amar, having been knocked down by the car driven by Robert’s henchmen, is adopted by the Hindu Police Superintendent Khanna; the middle one Anthony, falling asleep outside a nearby Catholic church with Bharati’s suicide note in hand, is taken in by the large-hearted Christian priest Father Gonsalves; and the youngest son Raju, left under the statue in the park, is picked up by a kind Muslim tailor Darji Ilahabadi. Elsewhere, Bharati is struck blind by a falling branch in the storm as divine punishment for leaving her sons behind. She is later rescued and dropped off home on the way by Mr. Ilahabadi, though she is unable to recognize Raju due to her blind sight. Kishanlal, having escaped the fiery car accident, returns with Robert’s smuggled gold bullion in search of his sons, only to find the park empty and his sons gone, much to his distraught.
22 years later, Bharati, now a flower seller, is a hit-and-run victim outside a church and is rushed by Anthony, who is the bootlegging Robin Hood of the neighbourhood, to a private hospital. At the hospital, Raju, renamed as Akbar and a famed qawwali singer, is busy romancing Dr. Salma Ali, whose grumpy father Taiyyab Ali disapproves of their relationship. Amar, as a police inspector, also arrives at the hospital to check on the accident case, and all three men donate blood at the same time to Bharati. Later on, Amar, tracking down a highway robbery case, comes across Lakshmi, who is being forced by her abusive stepmother and violent stepbrother Ranjeet, to act as a small-time thief while she is taking care of her elderly, wheelchair-bound grandmother. Amar rescues Lakshmi by arresting her stepmother and offering refuge to her and her grandmother.

Elsewhere, Kishanlal is now a wealthy crime lord as he used the stolen gold bullion to drive Robert’s crime syndicate out of business and force a jobless Robert to work for him while taking in Robert’s daughter Jenny as his own and sending over her to studies abroad. However, Kishanlal and his henchmen are forced to vacate their loading dock raided by the police.

The ensuing chaos result in Robert escaping with another shipment of Kishanlal’s smuggled gold bullion and shooting Superintendent Khanna non-fatally in the process. Using the new smuggled gold bullion, Robert regains his former position as crime lord and intends to retrieve Jenny and kill Kishanlal for destroying his business; even hiring Ranjeet following his mother’s arrest. At the same time, Jenny returns after completing her studies abroad, and Anthony falls head over heels in love with her during a church sermon on Easter Sunday. After suffering from a minor head injury while escaping from Robert, Bharati miraculously regains her eyesight at a festival honouring the Sai Baba of Shirdi that is hosted by Akbar, whom she proceeds to identify as Raju from his childhood photograph at home, thanks to Mr.

Ilahabadi’s reminder of having encountered Bharati earlier during her branch accident. Simultaneously, Akbar saves Salma and Taiyyab from a house fire arranged by some prostitutes who were blackmailing Taiyyab. A grateful Taiyyab gives his blessings to Akbar and Salma’s relationship and this event leads both Akbar and Amar to learn that they are brothers and that Kishanlal and Bharati are their parents.
However, things take a drastic turn when Kishanlal is double-crossed by one of his bodyguards Zebisco, who kidnaps Jenny and sells her out to Robert in exchange of her hand in marriage. Father Gonsalves and Lakshmi witnessed the kidnapping, but Lakshmi ends up being captured by Ranjeet while Father Gonsalves ends up being murdered by Robert. After learning about Father Gonsalves’ death, Anthony quickly discovers that both Kishanlal and Bharati are his parents and that Amar and Akbar are his brothers.

The three brothers are then determined to make Robert pay for his crimes, so they respectively disguise themselves as a one-man band, an elderly tailor and a catholic priest and succeed in entering his mansion, accompanied by Salma, who assists Lakshmi and Jenny in escaping.

The three brothers then reveal themselves and beat up Robert, Zebisco, Ranjeet and all the remaining henchmen up before having them all arrested and sent to prison for their crimes. However, Bharati is distraught to learn that Kishanlal is sent back to prison for his previous crimes, but the latter assures to her that their family is reunited once again, which is the only thing that matters to him; Superintendent Khanna (who has recovered from his wounds) briefly releases Kishanlal so that he can share a hug with his sons. The film ends with the three brothers driving joyfully with their loved ones in the sunset.