Anthony Tout Kaun hai? (2001/2006)
Actually there is no movie with that name, atleast not released in 2001 and 2006. The title is a combination of Christian Slater’s “Who is Cletis Tout?” (WiCT) and Arshad Warsi’s “Anthony Kaun hai?” (AKH)
Both the movies have similar story. Ok let me correct it, they have exactly the same story with minor difference here and there. First the story;
The story starts with an assassin enters a hotel room to kill Anthony/Cletis. Waiting for the money to be transferred to his account, he starts talking with Anthony/Cletis and the whole story is told in flashback. The story is about a magician who steals diamond. He is caught and sent to jail. For many years he stays in jail when one day he meets a forger who helps him get out in exchange of half the stolen diamonds. They both get out and assume the identity of dead men to escape from the police. Coincidently, the forger assumes the identity of a Video reporter wanted dead by the mafia. The mafias are behind the man with the Video reporter’s name. In the confusion, the old magician is killed. But before dying, he has told the address to his daughter. The only problem is the hiding place was once an open ground and is now a minimum security prison. How he gets the diamond forms the rest of the story.
AKH is directed by Raj Kaushal who earlier directed “Pyar main kabhi kabhi” (1999) and “Shaddi ka laddu” (2004). WiCT is directed by Chris Ver Wiel, a rather unknown director who according to IMDB has not directed anything after this movie. He is also credited to have written the story.
To settle the matter, AKH is almost 95% ripped off from WiCT. There is no question about it. Even the dialogs look similar. The characters are similar and have the same characterization. The way the story is handled is very much similar and yet Raj Kaushal manages to better the product. He actually manages to make it more enjoyable but I guess it is possible because Raj Kaushal had someone named Arshad Warsi playing the hero while WiCT had Christian Slater as the hero.
WiCT is a thriller with a little bit of love story. There is no mystery in the movie. The secret is revealed at the interval. The ending seems to be rushed forward. You really don’t have on the edge climax. The story ends slowly. Christian Slater plays Trevor/Cletis Tout. Tim Allen plays a movie-obsessed hitman who mouths a quote and then give reference in which movie the dialog was spoken.
Richard Dreyfuss plays the magician and Portia De Rossi plays the magician’s daughter. All the other character have a very small role and it would be even difficult to remember them if you are not paying attention. I had seen AKH first and then WiCT so it was easier to relate to the story but many question remain unanswered or maybe I was not keeping track of the story. The story between the forger and the magician’s daughter is not that developed but is significant in the ending. Tim Allen is actually the best character in the movie who gives some light-hearted moments to this film keeping a straight face. He is a big movie buff who cries while watching an emotional movie but kills without emotions.
AKH is a little bigger than WiCT. As it is a rip-off of WiCT, it is not a comedy, not exactly a thriller and not exactly a love story. Arshad Warsi plays Champ a.k.a Champak Chaudhuri who is a forger caught and sent to jail where he meets the magician played by Raghuvir Yadav. He dies in the crossfire with the mob but tells the address of the diamonds to his daughter played by Minissha Lamba. Gulshan Grover plays a humming Inspector. The Assassin is played by Sanjay Dutt but his role is more of a guest/special appearance.
This is no Munnabhai because both the lead characters are from Munnabhai. Here Sanjay Dutt plays a savvy hit-man, Master Madan who drives a Ferrari and drinks the best wine. He is shown to be a movie buff but does not show that much knowledge as Tim Allen in the original. Here he does not much to do except look very serious.
The best thing in the movie is Arshad Warsi. He plays the sometime confident and sometimes silly Champ with ease. Its not a typical circuit role he is famous for but then it would have been a repeat performance. Arshad Warsi is the reason that the movie is bearable. Minissha Lamba is beautiful and I really liked her in “Yahaan” Here too she is ok but then she does not have much scope in the movie. Anusha Dhandekar is there in the movie, why? Nobody knows. She does an item number and then vanishes.
Chetan Hansraj is the main villian and he shouts and shouts. Kyon bhai? Kyon chila rahe ho? Somebody has to tell him that shouting is not menancing enough.
Raj Kaushal manages to make the movie entertaining. The climax is much better and sweet and makes you smile. The story is based in Thailand so many good location. The movie is not a classic but not bad for one time viewing. You can watch if you have really ran of choices in your DVD library
So for the rating
Who is Cletis Tout? gets 5.5 for the smart story but a slightly boring movie
Anthony Kaun Hai? gets 6 for Arshad Warsi and Raj Kaushal attempt to make the movie more bearable
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Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
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Shivajee
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Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
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what a co-incidence. i was just watching the movie last night. it’s only because of Arshad Warsi that I could endure this one.
hi
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