Surprise!. Review on My Name is Anthony Gonsalves

It is important I suppose to give you the circumstances that I watched this movie in.  I was in Lucknow for a few days due to some business. They have these new malls where I spent most of my free time(besides seeing the city's great historical spots). It was in a spanky, new multiplex I saw this film advertised. After vowing to stay away from anything with RGV's name I was ultimately so bored that I absolutely had to watch a film. Even to laugh at it.

Plot:Anthony Gonsalves(Nikhil Dwivedi) is a bartender brought up by a priest(Mithun Chakraborty). His ambition is to be a film star. He gets a break in a film and all his dreams look set to come true.until he sees a murder with his gangster godfather as the culprit. Now he has a moral dillema strangely akin to that of ajay Devgan's in Halla Bol. With a cop on his trail, would Anthony give up his dream to stand for the truth?

Positives:

I don't know about others but I was pleasently surprised.

This was mostly a fun film. It does begin routinely but also has surprising elements of social conscienceness flick. It could have gone the same path of how the hero achieves his dream without any soul searching involved- but it doesn't.(Also, I couldn't help noticing, this is the first mainstream film I have seen in a long time where almost all main characters are minority.)

Just when you feel that things are going in the right direction Anthony witnessess his godfather(Pawan Malhotra) burying a dead body. From there it turns into a thriller. Even though it does not get far with it's "do the right thing" it, at least, does not shove it down your throat like Halla Bol.  I also found the relationship between Anthony and his Godfather strangely moving(another surprise).

Nikhil Dwivedi offers a surprisingly confident and assured performance in his first film. Used properly he could be an actor to watch out for.

He is surrounded by some great actors like Malhotra, Chakraborty, Lillette Dubey and Anupam Kher(as Pawan Malhotra's boss). The rest of the supporting cast is also excellent - the guy who plays Michael, Malhotra's cronies etc.

I agree that it is not wholly original though. As the reviewer before me pointed out one scene in the beginning is like Scorcese's Goodfellas. Another one where Godfather is asked to shoot Anthony is directly from Coen Brother's Miller's Crossing. The sub-plot of gangsters internal struggle is from Shakespeare's Julius Ceaser - but that is acknowledged in the film and I found the refrence quite neat.

Mithun as the priest offers some fun moments.

Negatives:

Two words: Amrita Rao. This is the first film I have seen of her(yes, not even Main Hoon Naa) and she sticks out like a sore thumb. She does look glamorous when required to(if the word means dressing up in minis) but her acting grates at times.

Also I did not find Anthony's naivety believable. Come on, he knew his Godfather was a dada, it is not so unbelievable that he killed someone.

The music is tepid. Cinematography nothing to write home about.

On the whole:

My name is. not a great film by any chance but it never fails to entertain. Also is a first enjoyable film from RGV factory in a long time. I think you should give it a go.