Anthony Kaun Hai has been produced by Nikhil Panchamiya and directed by Raj Kaushal. The two lead characters of the film are Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi and hence there are expectations that the film will be a comic caper and the leads will once again have the same chemistry that was seen amongst them in Munnabhai. However the film belongs to the suspense/thriller genre and this time round there is minimal interaction and scenes between Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi, nonetheless they have a charming presence together on-screen. There are also high expectations from the music of the film as it has been composed by Himesh Reshammiya, but this too turns out to be an average score.
Anthony Kaun Hai has the tag line of ‘Two men, an assassin and his victim and the question between them is who is Anthony?” The film stars Sanjay Dutt (Master Madan). Arshad Warsi (Champ), Minisha Lamba (Jiya), Anousha Dandekar (Rosa), Raghuvir Yadav (Magician Raghu Sharma), Gulshan Grover (Detective Suraj Singh), Chetan Hansraj etc. The story revolves around a hitman and a conman and has several parallel tracks of a love story and the theft of diamonds whose location is known only to a few people.
Master Madan is a renowned hitman and has been assigned the task to eliminate Champ. Lucky Sharma (Chetan Hansraj) wants Champ dead as he believes that he is Anthony the journalist. Madan captures Champ and is waiting for his money to arrive before he bumps off Champ, meanwhile Madan who is a complete bollywood movie buff decides to listen to Champ’s story. The story goes into flashback as Champ begins to narrate his tale. He is a con artist and over the years has adopted several different identities of different people. Champ was in prison and after he escaped from there he adopted Anthony’s identity to cover his tracks.
Champ narrates the tale of how he meets Magician Raghu Sharma in jail. Fifteen years back the magician decided to indulge in one final trick, steal some diamonds with his magic and how he lands up in jail for this robbery. He befriends Champ the con artist in jail and together with their skills they manage to escape. Jiya is Raghu’s daughter and she is the only one who knows where exactly the diamonds have been buried. Unfortunately a prison has come up just where the diamonds lay buried and now the place is swarming with cops. Jiya is a young and innocent girl who has only a little pigeon for a friend. Rosa is the bubbly vivacious girl who was smitten by Champ but is now married to his best friend. What role do all these characters play in the film? And Who is Anthony, what is his role in all this?
Meanwhile Detective Suraj Singh, the no-nonsense cop is all set to delve into the various mysteries, but will he be able to take on the professional’s hitman Master Madan and conman Champ?
The film involves several flashbacks as Arshad is narrating the story to Sanjay Dutt. Unfortunately even though Sanjay Dutt’s character is present in the film throughout; he does not have too much scope. He is basically shown as a listener and does give his input at times. This is a major disappointment as in the promos Sanjay Dutt was being touted as one of the main leads, but in actuality the story does not really revolve around Sanjay Dutt. The film of course is also based on the Hollywood film Who is Cletis Tout? In fact even the title of the film Anthony Kaun Hai? has a semblance to its Hollywood counterpart. Raj Kaushal’s execution of the film ranges from average to good. Raj has given the film a fantastic and stylish appeal, even Sanjay and Arshad have been given stylish looks and personas. The script by Soumik Sen is different but nonetheless comes across as quite interesting. Raj’s technique of flashbacks and the story telling technique done by Arshad gives the film more fizz and pep. The title track ‘No Way No Way’ is catchy but the rest of the music remains average. Cinematography by Hemant Chaturvedi depicts the beautiful locales of Krabi and Bangkok which add to the stylish quotient. There are interesting twists and turns in the plot which make it a fair thriller.
The entire thriller caters more to audiences who prefer something different and it will be more appealing to audiences of multiplex theaters. The music of the film is average and does not have too much of an impact. Even the placement of the songs especially at the end do not seem to have a logical placement. Also there seem to be gaps in the narrative and another major glitch is an extremely poor character sketch of Anthony, the character is never shown on-screen and ultimately one gets the feeling that Anthony is just another abstract character but not one that is extremely important.
The film nonetheless is quite entertaining, it has a dash of comic sequences, song and dance, great locations and suspense. All these in doses tend to balance out the film and makes for a time-pass film. The climax tends to change the flow and is quite interesting. Sanjay Dutt’s role is miniscule in the film; nonetheless his character turns out to be lovable and fun to watch. Arshad Warsi does not play the typical hero material, but he does an extremely fine job as an all rounder. Arshad has quite a few films on hand this year, and with Anthony Kaun Hai he embarks on a good start. Minisha Lamba has done a good job too, she looks pretty and has a much more substantial role than all her other films so far. Anousha Dandekar is great eye-candy but needs to work on her Hindi. Raghuvir Yadav is quite efficient as the magician and Chetan Hansraj as the villain has an extremely brief role which is just about average.
The film definitely works as a time-pass flick, which can be rated as average. Also it has a prominent starcast like Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi and Minisha Lamba which will work for it and amongst all the three releases this week, it is the most watchable. However it may appeal to a niche set of audiences with its different storyline, interesting screenplay style and the rich setting. At the box-office it may have an average response.
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| Reviewed By: Rachel Fernandes |
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