Vaitla’s tryst with split personality

Sreenu Vaitla had created his own mark of entertainment but has delivered three duds on the trot over the last five years. This time he tries his luck with Ravi Teja. Ileana returns to Tollywood after a five-year gap with this film. The story starts in 2003 in New York. Amar and Aishu and their families are close friends and run a company together. Some people plant a bomb. Amar and Aishu escape with their trusted servant Akbar (Sayaji Shinde). The kids are separated in another incident. After 15 years, Amar (Ravi Teja) is released from prison and decides to take revenge against the killers. Aishu changes her name to Pooja (Ileana) and waits for Amar. AAA is a big test for Vaitla but he doesn’t seem to have learnt the lessons of the past. He takes the point of dissociative identity disorder or split personality but neglects it completely. The story has similarities with Athanokkade (2005), directed by Surender Reddy. Aparachithudu directed by Shankar some years back is also based on split personality. AAA is neither a comedy nor a revenge drama. One feels the director must stick to regular revenge dramas rather than create a confused script.

Like in his earlier films, the director is still fond of spoofs. This time he creates WATA (Whole Andhra Telangana Association), spoofing on the Telugu organisations in the US. There is another one on evangelist K.A. Paul.

Vaitla fails in all departments, even his comedy is predictable and sometimes irritating. The emotional angle is missing. Besides, he falls back on some stereotypes, showing Akbar’s speaking poor Telugu. Ravi Teja is good in three different roles. Ileana is beautiful and justifies her role but it is restricted. Vennela Kishore provides a few laughs in the first half and Sunil in the second half. Satya as Paul is good initially, but irritates later. Srinivas Reddy and Giridhar are just okay. Tarun Arora, Aditya Menon and Vikramjeet play regular villains. Abhimanyu Singh as the FBI officer is not up to the mark. Music is by S.S. Thaman and it’s just average and the songs are not catchy. The film is set in the USA and features some beautiful locations. Amar Akbar Anthony is a multiple failure for director Sreenu Vaitla as he provided the story, screenplay and direction. Only a couple of scenes stand out in the film. DIRECTOR: RATING: