Johnny Gaddar is a smart, stylish and suave thriller. However it’s a thriller with a difference, the audiences know who the game player is right from the start, so the trick for the director is despite this to still maintain the graph of the film and still hold the audiences’ attention and he manages to do so successfully. Director Sriram Raghavan skillfully navigates the twists and turns and keeps the plot unpredictable. The script begins with a simple looking story on the surface, but the script has several intelligent layers added as one moves along. The screenplay is attention grabbing with the sheer brilliance of the twists and turns. And the performances manage to further cement an already strong film. An intelligent and entertaining thriller, actually one of the rare good thrillers from bollywood.
The film has been directed by Sriram Raghavan and stars Dharmendra as Seshadri, Neil Mukesh as Vikram, Zakir Hussain as Shardul, Vinay Pathak as Prakash, Rimi Sen as Mini, Ashwini Kalsekar etc.
A group of five guys who have one common thing between them are brought together by leader Seshadri. The one thing they have in common is that they all want to earn a lot of money in a short time. From the youngest member Vikram who is suave and sophisticated, to Dharmendra the veteran of the group, to the gambler and the club owner as well as the muscleman, all of them have one agenda, to get rich quickly. The idea is simple, to deliver a consignment for which each of them has to invest an amount which has been promised by the party to triple after the delivery.
They set up a simple plan to carry out the delivery of the consignment, but one of the gang members has other plans. He decides to get the entire booty for himself; this is when dead bodies of the gang members start appearing. The gang of five naturally gets suspicious of each other, so will they figure out which one of them has double crossed the others, but will they figure this out before all of them are slowly eliminated?
Sriram Raghavan’s film script has an extremely intelligent plot, the twists and turns are riveting right up till the end. The screenplay has a balanced dose of style and suspense. However Raghavan’s style of execution is definitely what takes the film higher, one clearly sees an inspiration from 70’s thriller bollywood films, he has also been inspired by Hollywood suspense creators like Alfred Hitchcock and others. He interweaves an intelligent plot along with great charaterisations too. None of his characters are black or white, they all have grey shades. Even the flow of the film is maintained as the director does not use sub-plots to deviate but instead adds layers to the already existing main plot.
The action may not be of hi-tech variety but its rawness is what makes it even more interesting. There are several scenes which simply stand out for their sheer brilliance in the way they are executed. The background score is absolutely in tandem with a thriller and lends to the suspense. The dialogues are first rate and the cinematography is extremely good. However the pace of film slackens during several periods in the film, nonetheless it still has its audiences hanging on for more.
Performances in the film are first rate and everyone gets equal footage as well as scope to their roles. Dharmendra as the veteran gives an extremely competent performance, it is however newcomer Neil Mukesh who stands out with his good looks and fine acting, he is completely in sync with his role, he gives a subtle but yet strong performance. Zakir Hussain delivers very well and Vinay Pathak is an absolutely fabulous actor. Rimi Sen too does fairly well in her different kind of role. Daya Shetty and Ashwini Kalsekar are adept in their performances.
Johnny Gaddar has an intelligent script, a screenplay filled with twists and turns and the execution is first rate. The performances too are in sync. However at the box-office it has been underrated due to its lack of super stars and a big banner. Also currently thrillers are not the flavour of the month, however through word of mouth the film has the possibility to rise at the box office. A good thriller that manages to keep you engrossed in the proceedings right till the end with its flair and brilliance.
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| Reviewed By: Rachel Fernandes |
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