Johnny Gaddaar

Last night, I felt bored in my flat and thought of watching some movie. I checked out the listings and found that “Johnny Gaddaar” was playing near my flat. As the reviews are good, I thought of taking a chance. So I went to the 8 30PM show with my roommate after eating sambar-idli. I always tend to eat light before watching a movie as I’m a lover of pop-corn and hence I can gobble some while watching the movie.
Now, coming back to the movie, I found that it was interesting right from scene one. The movie started with a tribute to the master of suspense, James Hadley Chase. And the director’s devotion to him was visible throughout the movie, right from titles to the climax(which will definitely ignite some memories if you’ve read any novels of James). And even the novels of James Hadley Chase were shown at least half a dozen times in the movie. The movie opens on a rainy night in a police van (a group of policemen discussing about the first night of a colleague) and then the murder of a stranger by another stranger (none of their faces are shown to maintain the suspense). Then the titles start, which will remind you of Sin City or some Quentin Tarantino’s flicks.
Johnny Gaddaar is the story of 5 conmen; Seshadri, Shiva, Prakash, Vikram and Shardul. They hit a deal which will make each of them richer by 5 million rupees in about a week. Vikram, who’s the youngest of all, has an illicit relationship with Minni, Shardul’s wife. He plans to escape with the entire booty so that he can move to Canada with Minni and start a fresh life there. He kills Shiva accidentally in this process which leads to a lot of twists and turns. He has to eliminate each of his friends as a result of this. This is roughly the main plot of the story but the way it’s executed makes the movie-goer sit on the edge of his seat and watch the proceedings.
This film is no-doubt a thriller, but of a different kind. You know who the killer is, but what happens in the next frame and the frame after is the real nail-biter. After watching the movie, if you feel like you just saw some Hollywood flick then you are not-at-all mistaken. The screenplay of the film is outstanding and the plot is never boring. How each of the conmen comes to know the truth(but each in a different own way) is very convincing and novel. The taking is excellent and there are some scenes that made an impact on me like:
1. The police interrogation scene in which “Bangalore” spills out the victim’s mouth.
2. The way Shiva accidentally falls and bangs his head to the wash-basin of the train.
3. The scene showing the way Prakash’s car was pushed into a trench and how it slowly immerses in water(the best shot scene of the movie).
4. The dream sequence of Shiva coming to kill Vikram.
Performance-wise, Dharmendra is limited to a few scenes, but he does well. The main protagonist, Neil Mukesh, had the best debut of recent times. Rimmi Sen does justice to her role even though she doesn’t have much scope. The other actors too played their part well. The director had cleverly revolved the story between some 8 people and everyone got their own importance. Overall, “Johnny Gaddaar” might not be the best of thrillers but definitely, it tries to induce fresh life into the boring list of Bollywood thrillers. It’s definitely worth a watch and you wouldn’t regret watching this.
Dialogue of the movie: “It’s not the age, my friend. It’s the mileage”