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MY NAME IS ANTHONY GONSALVES |
By Taran
Adarsh, January 11, 2008 - 12:33 IST
 In
the 1970s, the foot-tapping number from AMAR AKBAR
ANTHONY, 'My name is Anthony Gonsalves', proved a
chartbuster and despite innumerable songs invading the
Hindi screen in the intervening period, the song still
lingers. MY NAME IS ANTHONY GONSALVES uses the
wordings of the popular track, but will the movie be
remembered as the song in question? Now that's a tough
one!
Looking at the promos of E. Niwas' new outing MY NAME
IS ANTHONY GONSALVES, it's difficult to comprehend the
genre of the film. That's precisely why you wait for
the reels to unfold, to understand what this boy next
door called Anthony Gonsalves would be up to.
The sad part is MY NAME IS ANTHONY GONSALVES appeals
in bits and spurts. An ordinary idea seems to be
stretched beyond a point and that's one of the reasons
why MY NAME IS ANTHONY GONSALVES lacks the fizz.
Write your own movie review of My Name is Anthony
Gonsalves
Another aspect that goes against the film is that the
first hour lacks the power to keep you hooked. There's
no movement in the story, frankly. Yet, it must be
said that E. Niwas' execution of the subject, in the
second hour mainly, camouflages the defects. A few
portions are extremely well handled, especially those
when the gangsters get to know that Anthony is going
to spill the beans.
Overall, a disappointing fare!
An ordinary guy, Anthony Gonsalves [Nikhil Dwivedi],
has an extra-ordinary dream. His dream is to become an
actor. Anthony works as a bartender in Jimmy's Pub in
Bandra, Mumbai.
 Sikander
[Pawan Malhotra], Maqsood [Mukesh Tiwari] and Riyaaz [Dayashanker
Pandey] are gangsters and the pub is a legitimate
front for their illegal activities. Sikander is
Anthony's benevolent benefactor and protector.
One fine day, Anthony inadvertently becomes a witness
to a crime committed by the gang. Enters Inspector
Khan [Jawed Sheikh], an honest, conscientious officer,
investigating the murder of a dead colleague. Khan
gets to know about Anthony being a witness to the
crime.
Khan starts pursuing Anthony and the gang with dogged
determination. Anthony has to choose between Sikander
on one hand and his dream to become an actor, on the
other.
Clearly, the fault lies in the writing. As mentioned
at the outset, there's hardly any movement in the
story in the first hour. Once the characters are
established, instead of taking the story forward, it
just stagnates. In fact, things start moving only at
the intermission period. The second half holds a lot
of promise and the wheels start moving at this stage,
but the climax, again, is outright predictable,
straight out of the 1970s.
 Director
E. Niwas is bogged down by a patchy script, which
vacillates from interesting to boring. The writing [Mayur
Puri, Lajan Joseph] is the culprit here. Dialogues are
well penned at times. Cinematography is strictly okay.
Nikhil Dwivedi suits the character and handles his
part confidently. He has the trappings of a fine
actor, his expressions are perfect at most times. But
he needs to better his dialogue delivery and work on
his voice. Amrita Rao looks gorgeous, but her role
isn't substantial enough. Mithun Chakraborty is
alright. Anupam Kher is excellent. Pawan Malhotra is
superb. Mukesh Tiwari and Dayashanker Pandey are
first-rate as well. Lillete Dubey is wasted in a role
that any other actor could've enacted. D. Santosh is
competent.
On the whole, MY NAME IS ANTHONY GONSALVES is a dull
fare. At the box office, it's a tough journey ahead
for this film!
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