Amar (Ravi Teja) is a troubled man with revenge in his veins due to a childhood marred by people his family trusted. Pooja, aka Aishwarya (Ileana) is his childhood friend who's equally damaged and waits for his return with Jalal (Sayaji Shinde), a family friend. But Amar and Aishwarya both seems to have a peculiar problem that mars their life even further. Will they find a way to overcome it?
Tollywood seems to be extremely fascinated with taking scientific discoveries or medical ailments that are very much real and twisting them into something else by actively providing false information. In the case of Amar Akbar Anthony, it is dissociative identity disorder that's the victim, along with the audience.
Amar (Ravi Teja) is released from prison after serving his 14 year sentence and the second he's out, he's baying for blood. Pooja (Ileana) is an event manager constantly harassed by Miriyala (Vennela Kishore) who can't seem to take no for an answer. Both the individuals have triggers that turn them into a whole different person, much to the chagrin of those around them. Pursuing Amar and his trail of dead bodies is FBI officer Balwanth (Abhimanyu Singh); put on his tail by the very people he's hunting down.
While this makes for a fascinating story by itself, there's also the cliché accented Telugu speaking Akbar and suspiciously calm Dr Anthony to deal with. But because that's also not enough, we have a motley of NRI characters who make up the WATA (World Andhra Telangana Association), a black magic practitioner Jr Paul (Satya) and a serial gambler Bobby (Sunil) thrown into the fold, apart from the four antagonists who are shareholders of a pharma group. Phew!
While it is good that the film attempts to maintain a serious tone by leaving the character of Amar constantly grumbling and Pooja ever pensive, given the subject, AAA strays majorly off the path when it also tries to be a typical commercial masala potboiler by injecting the good ol' song and dance and forced comedy at regular intervals. The story is so predictable that despite the flashback being revealed in bits and pieces, one can gauge exactly how it's all going to turn out.
Predictability aside, Sreenu Vaitla seems to be trying so hard to reinvent himself that the film seems to have a tone that's majorly confused. It's a relief to see a film that immediately jumps to the point without meandering around and equally relieving to not see unnecessary romantic moments forced into a narrative about revenge. But unfortunately, the way the whole film is stitched together does not seem to work, and not just due to the choppy editing in parts. The sad part is that by the end, one can even understand what the director tried to pull off and failed at.
Ravi Teja delivers a good performance as the focused Amar who has nothing left to live for except revenge, disoriented at times due to his ailment, and as the calm Dr Anthony. It is his performance as Akbar that seems forced, mostly due to the way it's written. Ileana too makes her presence felt in limited screen-time, looking gorgeous as Aishwarya, even while kicking some major butt. While Vennela Kishore, Sunil and Satya are a delight to watch on-screen, especially when Sunil decides to shake a leg, the way they're inserted into the story seems pointless and inorganic. Sayaji Shinde and Abhimanyu Singh are wasted in roles where they have nothing much to do, so are the rest of the cast. They all deserved a better screenplay. Thaman did a good enough job with the BGM even if the songs don't leave a mark. The cinematography by Venkat C Dileep is good too.
Unfortunately, by the end, the film just turns out to be old wine in a new bottle made worse by ignorance. But watch this one if you're a Ravi Teja or Ileana fan, just don't expect too much.
