Johnny's tribute to Parwana

Official Website: Johnny Gaddar
Running Time: 150 minutes
Genre: Suspense Thriller
Director, Story: Sriram Raghavan
Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Dharmendra, Vinay Pathak, Zakir Hussain
Ashwini Kalsekar, Rimi Sen, Shiva
Music Director: Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonca
Lyrics: Nilesh Mishra, Hardkaur, Jaideep Sahni

Johnny Gaddar is essentially a tribute to some movies that were way ahead of time. Director Sriram Raghavan has paid homage to those movies he has copied the main plot of the movie. A smart way to counter copycat boos!! The tributes have been interwoven with the narratives and quite indigenously. The title of the film is inspired by Vijay Anand while the script is a mix of James Hadley Chase novels and the Big B starrer Parwana. What a better way to prove, copying is an art. The director even shows characters read Jams Hadley Chase!

Sriram chooses to be different by unveiling the killer at the very beginning of the money chase. That does not get you disappointed but yearning for more as you keep guessing the end of the story till the last 5 minutes of the movie. The director allows the audience to don the thinking hat which is refreshing in a bollywood suspense thriller after a spate of poorly copied remakes by Ramu Verma!

Johnny Gaddaar deals with shades of character and delves upon the original sins of greed, betrayal, corruption, love, desperation and murder. Every turn in the movie allows to you come up with several options to choose and proved wrong to the simplest of turns. And Raghavan continues to surprise but the last frame where you get the plot. A story of five different characters who just want to make fast money. Love turns to greed and to murders. And you tend to empathize with the killer as all the murders are accidental barring one!

Neil Mukesh is one of the best finds of this year for Bollywood. His resemblance with Hrithik Roshan not withstanding, he is sure to be one ‘lambi race ka ghoda’ in the industry. Dharamendra plays his short role with aplomb though you feel you could have seen more of him. Vinay Pathak is a stealer as usual and it is a revelation that we have ab actor of his caliber in the industry. The multiplex movie types have been a boon for actos like Vinay. Rimi Sen does not get much scope though she has improved!

The movie is a little long with three short songs, and the pace thus unable to do complete justice as a suspense thriller. Shankar Ehsaan Loy gives another good performance with the background voice of Dharmendra’s wife playing a perfect foil to his murder!

Ek Haseena Thi, starring Saif Ali Khan and Urmila Matondkar was Raghavan’s debut at the box office. An average movie that won good critical acclaim. He has been a product of Ramu’s factory and the guru could well take a leaf or two from the shishya’s book considering his remakes are not making any moolah!

This year witnessed some below average murder movies that we force fitted as suspense thrillers like Red, Aggar, Raqeeb. More of B-grade sexual titillations that challenging you cerebrally. Johhny Gaddar and Manorama Six Feet Under chose to be different in the treatment and the plot. Probably the reason that these two stand out.

Watch out this space for Manorama!