Movie Review: Johnny Gaddar [Johnny (The) Traitor] (2007) – Hindi Film

About 20 mins before the end of the movie I was scared. Scared that till that point I had been mighty impressed and that the last 15 minutes would be a wash-off. That feeling continued till the last 10 minutes. I am happy to say that my fears didn’t come true; substantially

Johnny Gaddar is a pathbreaking movie for Hindi cinema in modern times. Taut! Taut! Taut!.......(tight script and editing) is what I can say about the movie.

JG is a thriller. It is director Sriram Raghavan’s 2^nd film; the first one being ‘Ek Hasina Thi’ (There was once a Beautiful Girl). The 1^st movie too was a thriller and quite enjoyable and very different for a Hindi film (watch it and you will know)

After these 2 films, the director is without doubt on my radar.

The plot: A gang of five embarks on a short-term high-profit deal, on the wrong side of the law. They contribute big amounts of money with assured (!) returns within a week. A slight hiccup and the guy carrying the money gets murdered on a train and the money goes missing. Shortly after that the rest of the guys keep getting bumped-off too. Whodunit?

• Dharmendra stars as Sheshadri: the suave gang-lead prone to nostalgia over his dead wife.
• Vinay Pathak as Prakash: the small-time gambling-den owner who dreams of much more. Ashwini Kalsekar is his sweet wife emoting a surprisingly wonderful performance
• Zakir Husain as the portly middle-aged Shardul: the comfortably rich club owner with a very good-looking wife: Rimi (who is completely un-enamoured of Shardul)
• Neil Nitin Mukesh (in his debut film) as Vikram: the stud in love with Shardul’s wife and who dreams of emigrating to Canada with her
• and finally XXX as Shiva, the guy who gets bumped-off on the train

Very few parts of the movie are jarring. The pace is fast, the editing very effective, the camera speaks, the songs just enough to set the right kind of atmosphere, the acting: mostly top notch, the outdoor scenes very realistic and well shot. The action is believable and reminiscent of a Jeffrey Archer novel.

Perhaps the weakest links in the movie are the main characters: Dharmendra, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Rimi. Although all 3 are competent they deliver an average performance. A great performance from all of them would have raised the movie a notch higher in terms of effect. Neil Nitin’s dialogue delivery particularly leaves a lot to be desired, so too Dharmendra’s when he starts speaking in English. But don’t let that take away the kudos from the other characters in the movie: Zakir Hussain and Ashwini Kalsekar in particular are very good. Vinay Pathak too does well in a small role. These are a set of actors who revel in the medium.

The ease with which characters dispose-off bodies and the ease with which they handle guns was one of the weaker points of the movie.

But all that is trivial when faced with the strengths of the movie. And when you hear the murderer claiming “…bhai, aap mera vishwas nahi karenge. Main kisi ko marna nahi chahta tha” […bhai, you will not believe me. I didn’t intend to kill anyone], it’s a tribute to the script that you too believe him.

Credits

Dedicated to the Masters of Thrillers: Vijay Anand and James Hadley Chase

Written and Directed by Sriram Raghavan

Also Starring:

Rimi, Ashwini Kalsekar, Rasika Joshi

Editor: Pooja Ladha Surti

Lyrics: Jaideep Sahni, Neelesh Misra, Swanand Kirkire, Hard Kaur/Des.C

Music: Shankar Ehsan Loy

Director of Photography: Muraleedharan C.K.

Closing Comment: Why the hell does Dharmendra use a rotary phone when the movie is set in the current era (‘Go Air’ planes attest to that)?