Amar Akbar & Tony

Firstly the screen writing: The film had no coherent storyline, jumping from comedy to tragedy to drama without any transitions and any attempt at laying the character backgrounds. I was left confused at the end: what was the film trying to show? The direction was mediocre, not a single scene stands out, whereas a few scenes stand out as failed attempts to inject some style into the otherwise turgid proceedings. SOme key scenes were very very badly done. In the scene when one of the protagonists of the film is reunited with his friend after a tragic few years, the director took the easy way out and completely ignored the potential to finally develop the characters.

The acting was a range- the one guy who stood out for me was Tony, his comedic timing and delivery was the saving grace. Karen David was the other extreme, very bad. The rest of the cast were passable to good.

But they are not the ones who let this cringe-worthy attempt at entertainment down- the blame must lie squarely with the director. No vision, no character development, just a hotchpotch of stereotypes shamelessly vomited under the banner of "feelgood". Sadly, this was as feel-sick as it gets.

When watching this film, I think it helps if you have some experience of multicultural Britain. Some of the story won't make much sense to people outside the UK without it.

If only in its title the film pays homage to the Bollywood film of the 70s "Amar Akbar and Anthony." In this British film, the disperate religious allegiances of the lead characters is referenced but not the focus. Instead the themes are about the clash of traditional Indian values with contemporary British ones.

How these issues are resolved is what drives the story line. The film does some of this well but in other areas it seems as if this is still a work in progress, but then perhaps that reflects the reality of Anglo/Indian life?

The three leads are well played: Rez Kempton as Amar is particularly good. Martin Delaney plays the "culturally clumsy puppy eager to please" well. Some of the performances from supports could have been better.

I came across this movie on netflix & wanted to watch it for a while, the plot could have had more depth, overall you will enjoy this movie if you of ethnic origin in my oppinon.

and 2016 continues to be the year of finding 'gems' in the film world. Keeping my promise to myself and watching more independent films than I have previously watched. Today I spent a wonderful ninety minutes watching a film that to be honest, needs more people to talk about it. I spend a lot of time reading about films, watching films, checking out trailers and going through press release articles to find diamonds among the sea of movies out there.But the only place I had heard about todays film was a solitary Twitter account that I had been following for a little while.

The film is Amar Akbar and Tony,

Written and Directed by Atul Malhotra and is available on iTunes,Amazon,Google Play,Virgin Media,Blinkbox,Talk Talk and Wuaki platforms. So what made the film a gem, but more to the point, what is Amar Akbar and Tony about? Well I am never one to give away plot points for a film, part of the beauty of discovering new films is to learn the story as you go alone with the characters. But to summarize the plot. I will borrow from the Internet Movie Database summary and describe it a realistic, multicultural coming-of age comedy drama following the lives of three childhood friends as they stumble through life from their carefree twenties into adulthood. Set in present-day London but beginning in the eighties. Such a charming film.

Amar Akbar and Tony had be by moment one with its realistic humour rather than scripted humour (although Im sure there was a script), the humour all felt very realistic, and the sort of dialogue and situations that could happen to any of us. We follow lifelong friends Amar (played by Rez Kempton), Akbar (played by Sam Vincenti) and Tony (played by Martin Delaney) who all come off as perfectly likable people straight off the bat. But don't just think that the film is all comedy. Amar Akbar and Tony (the film) is part comedy, but with a huge injection of drama mixed perfectly into a feature length film. It was strange once I reached the end of the film, which although lasted only an hour and a half, has left the characters extremely memorable in the same way, had I watched a 10 hour mini series.

There are no filler scenes in the film, and these are charactersI will think of when someone asks me for my favourite films I've seen. I was asked today what I felt the film reminded me of and I came up with Part East is East, Part Shameless and perhaps even Part This Is England. But Amar Akbar and Tony is such a fresh film and its been a total pleasure to have watched it today.

I can only blame the movie producers for not promoting the movie as it should have been.

Ridiculously under-rated; funny, heart warming movie with a easy to follow storyline. It's almost family friendly except for two scenes which are essential (Amar's re-entry to Akbar's night club and (An)Tony's bonk at Park) to the movie.

I find the movie light. Jolly, and a nice watch. Karen David stands out for me.

I do not wish to counter-write the negative reviews but surprised to read them; I wonder if they watched the movie even!?

I am more than happy to rate a ten out of ten. All you desis - you will love this flicm.