Amar Akbar Anthony

The film begins on the Independence Day of India with a lower middle-class chauffeur named Kishanlal Tripathi (Pran) being released from prison as he was arrested after taking the blame of a fatal hit-and-run accident. The crime was actually committed by his employer; the sadistic international crime lord Robert D'Souza (Jeevan), who had initially assured him that his family's welfare will be looked after by him following Kishanlal's arrest. However, Kishanlal is aghast to return home and discover his wife Bharati (Nirupa Roy) suffering from tuberculosis and their three infant sons starving badly from hunger. This causes a furious Kishanlal to land up at Robert's mansion and hold him responsible over the recent developments in his house. Instead of lending him a helping hand, Robert mercilessly forces Kishanlal to polish his shoes and gives him a single coin in return before ordering his gang members to kill him. Despite this, Kishanlal manages to escape from one of Robert's cars loaded with smuggled gold bullion as Robert's gang members give chase in the middle of the night.

Upon reaching home, Kishanlal finds his sons abandoned by Bharati who has left a suicide note - which reads that she does not wish to live with the money he is paid by wrongdoings. Dejected, Kishanlal takes his sons to the Borivali National Park and leaves them at the foot of the Mahatma Gandhi statue for safety before driving off alone for outrunning Robert's gang members. In a car crash, Kishanlal and his sons are presumed dead by both the gang members and the police. During Kishanlal's absence in the park - the three sons are respectively found and adopted by a Hindu police officer called Superintendent Khanna (Kamal Kapoor), a Muslim tailor called Mr. Ilahabadi (Shivraj), and a Christian priest called Father Gonsalves (Nazir Hussain).

Following her suicide attempt, Bharati is struck blind by a falling branch as a sign of punishment from the deity for abandoning her sons. She is rescued and dropped off home safely by Mr. Ilahabadi, although she is unable to recognise her youngest son due to her lack of sight. Bharati is devastated to learn from the police that Kishanlal and their sons died in the car crash. Having survived the car crash, Kishanlal returns to the park with Robert's gold bullion in search of his sons, only to find them all disappeared. Believing that he has lost his entire family, a distraught Kishanlal angrily swears vengeance on Robert due to him being the cause of all the unpleasant circumstances.

22 years later, the three brothers are shown grown-ups with different names, faiths and professions in Mumbai; the oldest son is a Hindu police officer named Amar Khanna (Vinod Khanna), the youngest son is a Muslim singer of qawwali named Akbar Ilahabadi (Rishi Kapoor), and the middle son is a Christian owner of a country bar named Anthony Gonsalves (Amitabh Bachchan). As fate would have it, the trio run into each other once again while donating blood to a blind hit-and-run victim - unaware that she too is their mother Bharati, who is now shown to be selling flowers. Meanwhile, Kishanlal is now shown to be a wealthy crime lord as he had used the smuggled gold bullion to form his own syndicate by rounding up Robert's henchmen to his own underworld and drive the latter out of his business, thereby forcing a penniless Robert to work for him. At one instance, Kishanlal forces a miserable Robert to polish his shoes and gives him a single coin in return (the same method Robert used to taunt Kishanlal). At the same time, it is also revealed that in order to avenge his separation from his family, Kishanlal had abducted Robert's infant daughter Jenny from his mansion and took her in as his niece before sending her off abroad for studies.

During a police raid on one of Kishanlal's loading docks, Kishanlal and his gang members are forced to vacate the place, allowing Robert to escape with a shipment of smuggled gold bullion and shoot Superintendent Khanna non-fatally in the process. Meeting up with Robert during his escapade, Anthony hides him from the police due to the fact that he is unaware about his crime, only to be later arrested by Amar for the crime of helping a criminal escape. While on his way to the court, Anthony is abducted from the police truck by Kishanlal's gang members and is brought before Kishanlal, who also interrogates him about Robert's whereabouts. However, Anthony manages to escape from Kishanlal's mansion using some of his clever tricks and respectfully returns to the police station as a prisoner. As a result, Anthony feels guilty for his illegal actions after learning from Amar what Robert did to Superintendent Khanna, although he is considered to be acquitted by the police.

As the story unfolds, each of the three brothers find themselves falling in love; Amar falls in love with a small-time crook named Lakshmi Anand (Shabana Azmi) after arresting her abusive stepmother (Nadira) for the sake of her grandmother (Pratima Devi), Akbar falls in love with a beautiful physician named Salma Ali (Neetu Singh) whose grumpy father Taiyyab Ali (Mukri) disapproves of their relationship, and Anthony falls in love with Jenny (Parveen Babi) - who has recently arrived in India - during a church sermon on Easter Sunday. Using the gold bullion, Robert regains his former position as a crime lord and swears to kill Kishanlal with the intention of retrieving Jenny as his daughter. While Kishanlal and Jenny are proceeded to be pursued by Robert, Kishanlal meets with a severe car accident, leaving behind Jenny in the danger of Robert and his gang members. Despite this, Anthony saves Jenny from the gang of Robert, while Akbar takes Kishanlal to the hospital. However, Robert attempts to torture Kishanlal over Jenny's whereabouts at the hospital, but ends up bumping into Bharati and recognizes her to be Kishanlal's wife.

Thus, Robert nearly abducts Bharati from the hospital in hopes of using her as a pawn to retrieve his daughter, but she manages to escape from him and his gang members to a festival honouring the Sai Baba of Shirdi that is hosted by Akbar, where she miraculously regains her eyesight by God's grace and Akbar's devotion. During her visit to Akbar's house, Mr. Ilahabadi recognizes Bharati as the woman whom he had saved from the falling branch and dropped off home safely 22 years ago. Also, Bharati stumbles upon Akbar's childhood portrait and realises that he is her long-lost youngest son. After being held hostage in the hospital by Robert, Salma and Taiyyab Ali are in a house fire arranged by some prostitutes who worked under Taiyyab Ali. After they both are saved by Akbar, Taiyyab Ali gratefully gives his blessings to Akbar and Salma's relationship. Salma's information proceeds to lead both Akbar and Amar to learn that they are brothers and that Kishanlal and Bharati are their parents.

However, things take a drastic turn when Jenny is betrayed by one of her bodyguards named Zebisco (Yusuf Khan), who sells her out to Robert in exchange of her hand in marriage. Along with Zebisco, Robert abducts Jenny from outside the church and stabs Father Gonsalves fatally in the process due to the latter's intervention. Lakshmi is also abducted and held hostage at Robert's mansion by her stepbrother Ranjeet (Ranjeet Bedi), who happens to be one of the gang members of Robert. After learning what happened to Father Gonsalves, Anthony discovers - with the help of Kishanlal's divine locket and Bharati's old suicide note - that they both are his parents and that Amar and Akbar are his brothers. With the knowledge that they are related and after the recount of the whole chain of incidents, the trio is determined to make Robert pay for his crimes and manages to receive the whereabouts of his mansion with Kishanlal's help.

Posing as an one-man musician, an elderly tailor and a catholic priest, the trio succeed in entering Robert's mansion along with Salma and perform for Robert and his gang members in a comical way. After their performance, the trio creates a commotion between Robert and Zebisco that allows Salma to help Lakshmi and Jenny escape to the police station. Eventually, the trio reveal themselves and have a long standoff with Robert, Zebisco, Ranjeet and all the other gang members before calling in the police to the scene and having them all arrested and sent to prison for their crimes. However, Bharati is distraught to learn that Kishanlal is also arrested and sent to prison by the police for his past crimes. Despite this, Kishanlal is released from prison by Superintendent Khanna to only allow him embrace the trio once. The film ends with the trio and their loved ones happily driving in the sunset, satisfied that they have taken down Robert and his gang members for good.

Amar Akbar Anthony was Manmohan Desai's first film as an independent film producer. The film was shot over a month at Ranjit Studios in Mumbai. Some exterior and interior shots were filmed at the Mount Mary Church in Bandra, Mumbai and at the Don Bosco School, Wadala, Mumbai respectively.[11][14] Shooting was scheduled so that the entire cast didn't have to appear together except for the climactic sequence and the title song ("Anhoni Ko Honi"), where they all perform as a group. However, the shooting went over schedule, which required Rishi Kapoor and Shabana Azmi to shoot their scenes separately so they could leave towards the end of production to work on other films.

For the film's marketing, erasers with the images of Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, and Amitabh Bachchan were sold to students.[32] Posters, postcards, and song booklets of the film were sold in shops. Colorful vests and metal crosses that were similar to the ones worn by Bachchan in the film achieved popularity.