2015 Film Amar Akbar Anthony

It stars Prithviraj Sukumaran, Jayasurya,Indrajith Sukumaran and Namitha Pramod. The music is composed by Nadirshah, while the background music is given by Bijibal. It was released on 16 October 2015.

Amar Akbar Anthony
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nadirshah
Written by	Bibin George Vishnu Unnikrishnan
Produced by	Zachariah Thomas Alwin Antony
Starring	Prithviraj Sukumaran Jayasurya Indrajith Sukumaran Namitha Pramod
Cinematography	Sujith Vaassudev
Edited by	Johnkutty
Music by	Bijibal
Production companies	United Global Media Entertainment Ananya Films
Distributed by	Thameens Release & Tricolor Entertainment
Release date	16 October 2015 (2015-10-16)
Running time	145 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam
Box office	₹50 crore

The production of Amar Akbar Anthony was completed in 65 days. It earned a major commercial success at the box office. Its soundtrack was released by the Sony Music India.

The plot revolves around three bachelor friends, who live in the same colony in Kochi. Their struggle to live a luxurious life and to visit Thailand is constantly met with issues. The bike-stunt master and travel agent, Faizal, is also living in the same colony. He receives several injuries when he met an accident while performing bike stunts. He is then admitted to a hospital where he meets other patients. Faizal explains the reason for the accident to the other patients by narrating a story about his three clients Amar, Akbar and Anthony. The three are best friends, who are living a middle-class life.

Amar's father Ramanan works as a security officer at ATM counter, while his mother, Chandrika is a marriage broker, who arranges the marriage of orphan woman Resmiya, but Resmiya's husband runs off with her jewelery hence Resmiya arrives at Amar's house to stay with her kid Fathima whom they lovingly call Pathu. Akbar is a handicapped person, whose father, Stalin Mammali, is a bodybuilder while his mother Jameela is a housewife. Anthony works as a pizza delivery boy at a mall, and is an orphan where his stepfather Chakkappan found him left alone inside a movie theatre and lives with his step-parents.

All the friends have a common nemesis Nallavanyana Unni aka Unni. Apart from their usual work, they occasionally work as catering service boys for marriages and other functions under the supervision of Rejimon, whose grandmother usually engages herself with multiple social networking sites. She created a fake Facebook account and tried to make Amar fall in love with her. All three friends have a crush on Jenny, a Dancer. Their only goal and dream is to visit Pattaya, Thailand. However, due to family issues, their aim gets delayed each time.

Meanwhile, Amar's father met with an accident and is saved by Jadayu Sabu and the money which was saved by the three friends was spent on his father's treatment. Simultaneously, a Bengali worker named Dhappan usually kidnaps small children and kills them by sexually abusing them. Amar, Akbar and Anthony often bump into the man, but they do not care much about it.

Meanwhile during a celebration in the colony Pathu goes missing and later they were told that Pathu was murdered. They found her body in a drainage. The cops suspects Dhappan. The trio catches him and after a long fight Amar was about to kill Dhappan with a sword.

However, CI Sethunath stops them and reveals that Dhappan didn't kill Pathu, and tells that Sanju, a boy in their neighbourhood (whom Pathu was scared off and used to complain, because of his unusual behaviour) witnessed the scene and the culprit was their respected colony leader Mash, who was very much loved by Pathu. They along with the villagers attacks him and Dhappan. Amar tells Resmiya to avenge according to her wish and she stabs Mash with a bottle. On the other side, Dhappan is being stabbed by the people along with Mash and Akbar hits him with a stick, which he throws above. This stick flies through the sky and gets stuck in a bike which was racing by Faizal.

It is at this point that its revealed that Faizal is a travel agent at Pattaya tour and travel. 

Nadirshah made his successful debut with Amar Akbar Anthony. Mimicry artists, script writers along with Bibin and Vishnu completed the film screenplay in three years. They told the script to Nadirshah they knew for a long time. At listening to the script, Nadirshah showed interest.

The film was originally scheduled for 70 days with an estimated budget of ₹7 crore (US$880,000). However, it was completed in 65 days with an approximate production cost ₹6 crore (US$750,000).

The film was remade in Kannada as John Jani Janardhan.

The film was released on 16 October 2015 in India. The television satellite was sold to Surya TV. Sony Music India released the trailer on 5 October 2015. One day before the official release, its trailer was leaked on the video sharing website YouTube on 4 October which was later removed by the website. The trailer was viewed by the two lakh viewers in just two days.

Critical reception

International Business Times rated the film by 4/5. The film also revolves around the social issues and how to deal it. Sify.com stated that "How much you enjoy Amar Akbar Anthony will depend on your liking for loud, verbal comedy. Even if you are not a great fan of such jokes, this film can keep you entertained." Filmibeat rated the film 3 out of 5 calling it "comical extravaganza" The reviewer also noted that the film is indeed a good one that revolves around both comedy and social issues. . Malayala Manorama, a morning newspaper in Malayalam published from Kottayam, Kerala, rated 3 out of 5. According to the company, "As the film tries to capture everything in the running time. Nadhirshah skilfully maintains a pace in the plot and effortlessly switches between fillers, comedy and thriller, like a seasoned director".

Box office

At Kerala, the film earned ₹5.10 crore (US$640,000) in 3 days and ₹52 lakhs from the rest of the other Indian states. It earned more than ₹11.20 crore within 8 days of its official release with a net amount of ₹9.02 crore. During the first 14 days, it claimed to have made ₹16.3 crore and ₹22.6 crore (US$2.8 million) in 21 days. The film collected approximately ₹28.5 crore (US$3.6 million) from the worldwide cinemas in 45 days. The film collected ₹50 crore from Worldwide box office in its final run. The film was played for over 100 days in Indian theatres.

The audios were officially launched by Nivin Pauly and Dileep at an event which was organised by the filmmakers at Kochi on 9 October.

The first MP4 song "Premamennal" sung by Prithviraj Sukumaran, Indrajith Sukumaran, Jayasurya and Kalabhavan Shajon was released on 14 October by Sony Music India. The song "Yenno Njanente" featuring Baby Meenakshi is sung by Sreya Jayadeep was released on 22 October. The romantic song "Manjaadum" lyrics are written in Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil.

The film won the following awards:

Kerala State Film Awards

• Special Jury Mention - Baby Sreya