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Johnny Gaddar (2007)
When I was a child, I would like reading books. As I was not the intelligent kind, I never read classic literature. I read thrillers and detective novels. The beauty of thrillers and detective novels was to read as the mystery unravels, as the story twist and turns and ends to a perfect climax. I would be so excited reading that I wanted to finish the novel in one go without jumping to the end. After all the fun was as much as in the journey as it was in the climax.
As I watched “Johnny Gaddar” (JG), I felt the same rush, the same excitement and the same fun of reading a thriller novel and this ends in less than three hours. JG is a fast paced thriller. The question here is not about who did it but about, he did it, now what?
It about a gang of 5 people headed by Dharmendra, called Sheshadri, a one-time smuggler who now buys and sells some illegal stuff. Then there is Shiva, a wrestler, Prakash, owner of a gambling den, Shardul, owner of a night club and Vikram, a person who works in stock.
The task is simple. everyone chips in 50 Lakhs each and the task is to just buy some stuff that they can sell double the amount. Its a simple task when one of them is killed and the money disappears. Its obvious that one of them is the culprit. Audience knows it but they don’t and thats the fun as to how they find it.
Its not worth telling the story because its worth seeing that on the screen. I had liked Sriram Raghavan’s “Ek Hasina Thi” too and this is so much better.
All the actors are good. Dharmendra as Sheshadri, Vinay Pathak is always the best, Zakir Hussain as Shardul and Neil Mukesh as Vikram. The music is good and used quite effectively in the story itself especially when Vikram plays the pulsating “Doob ja mere pyar main” on high volume in his home.
And then there is tribute to the 70s and the era gone by. Right from the credits when the director pays tribute to Vijay Anand and James Hardley Chase, Rimi Sen is shown reading “Guide” and some time later Neil is shown reading James hardley Chase novel. The reference to the plot of Parwana, a Amitabh Bachchan movie to using Vijay Anand’s “Johnny Mera Naam” in the story. Its all there. There is even a tribute (I think) to Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s “Anand” just before the interval.
The story is different and its fun guessing the twist that would come next. In the first half hour we were wondering what was happening and in the second half we were just blown over. The movie did not feel like it was more than 2 hours.
A good thriller but again the audience was far less than expected but again we were watching a 9:15 PM show. Dhamaal was doing better in the next screen.
Rating: 8.5/10
50 Responses to “Johnny Gaddar (2007)”
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The film is great…very well made
Speaking of tributes, here are some of them that I could spot, apart from the obvious tribute to Parwana, and ‘Johnny mera naam’
1)Mini plays Jigsaw when Shardul joins her…I see a glimpse of ‘Citizen Kane’ where Orson Welles joins his actor wife(she also plays jigsaw).Both are unhappy marriages.
Also, she is recreating Titanic, a reference to Titanic where even Rose of Titanic is not happy with her fiancee
2)’Hum log Shaukeen buddhe hai’ a reference to movie Shaukeen.
3)I am not sure of this one…but probably someone will correct me…”Mora gora rang lai le” ..Is it a tribute to Gulzar(His first Song)(I would love to hear it is..)
Also, there are numerous retro references to James Hadley Chase, R.K.Naraynan , Vijay Anand
good observations srivastav saab…but i doubt the gulzar angle.
hi full2,
abhi dhamaal dekhna padega jaake mere ko lagta hain…
Sushant/Saurav
I too doubt the Gulzar angle but then nice observation on the other ones
Surendra
Hit dekhni hai toh dhamaal dekh lo. AAchi dekhi hai toh Yeh dekh lo
-Punds
only one word… Brilliant!
the movie is recipe for butterflies-in-stomach… could figure out following, JG was one lucky ba***** but the law of averages finally catches up with him… awesome movie! :)
Don… The solarised opening credit sequence with images of vital frames from the film… even the background music to the titles start with the Don theme…
There were many tributes to Tarantino’s films as well. Some of which I could remember are, feet massage sequences, a gang member having affair with boss’s wife(here it was not the case of boss’s wife, but wife of senior gang member).
The scene where the gang was having dinner with their families reminded me of goodfellas.
The movie was amazing. Am going to watch it again next weekend
Just saw the movie…..has to be one of the year’s best….there is even a small tribute to “Scarface” in the cash counting scene…even Dharmendra refers to it….its one of the best scripts i have seen coming out from Bollywood in recent times…..
hey guys…dont u think we have ignored the other movie…..noone has reviewed Dil Dosti etc on PFC.
come on OZ and co!
- Ashwin, it hasn’t released in California. If you have seen it or if anyone has seen it, please do forward your review via Projekt iView
So many tributes and yet it holds its own..brilliant camerawork,apt ambience,great background score,likable characters, though a tad slow post interval..definitely it is one of the better films uptill now this year..Shriram Raghvan and his cameraman Murleedharan deserve credit for this neat-retro package.
Could Gora ang layi le be a tribute to Dharamendra Romantic Era of 60s (or could well be one of his favorite most songs) as he was a Part of Bandini
Wow!!…. absolutely brilliant film-making…
loved every frame of Johnny Gaddar…
About the music…. well… wat can i say..
give SEL the space… n they fuckin rock u off your socks…. Johnny Gaddar bangin in my ear drums.. Move your body is exceptional stuff…
I think all the james hadley chase novels had the premise that”crime never pays”………………………………… sriram also ends the movie with that
It has been released in Bay Area. I watched it on Friday itself.
OZ, LA main nahi aayee kya?? :-?
I don’t particularly take to thrillers but the fact that I actively enjoyed JG says a lot about the movie!
Well, here’s a review -
http://www.businessofcinema.com/boc/?file=story&id=5317
Regards!
Saw the film finally. I had a lot of fun watching this one. Thank you Sriram Raghavan for serving something fresh. The Johnny Mera Naam pastiche was wonderful to watch. And loved how he played with noir conventions, and at the same time broke many of them to surprise you, because you would expect those conventions. I wish Dharam paaji had a more dynamic character to play.
As for minuses, I did not like the editing at all. Pacing was very poor in many of the scenes. Some were played out far longer than they needed to be, some had set ups that were too long, and on a couple of occassions, I had issues with the shot selection. In one conventional dialogue, neil mukesh keeps talking but we never cut to show his face. Simple things like that.
But on the whole, for daring to do something fresh and gutsy…sab galti maaf!
I beg to differ with all those on this site who have praised Johnny Gaddar to the skies. It was a film which promised a great deal but fell flat. The script was so flawed it made me angry. The build up of the hero was nil.. In fact a lousy vehicle for Neil Mukesh You feel nothing for the guy. He has just one expression throughout.
From the scene where neil confesses to Dharmendra ..the film just went down. What a wimp the hero is made out to be. Just a slap and all his ’shaanapan’ goes outa the window. Another slap from Zakir and again the same confession.
The direction was amateurish.. the scenes so hurriedly shot. Every other character is watching a movie on tv. Its kiddish. and pretentious. The hall had just about 25-30 on a holiday yesterday .and the crowd was jeering at the scenes. In fact the comments in the auditorium were more hillarious. i cannot believe that you guys here are talking about the same film. It is obvious the Director has a lot of friends on this site ..bhavani ( what terrble judgment or what a great attachment for Sriram) anurag etc. But the audience is nobodys friend. the producer of the film has been complaining of the poor collections.
And admin show some class and stop trolling people who have an opinion other than yours. Its getting to be a joke…
I didnt like the movie at all.. it was pure hype and empty within. and i went in a group of 7 .. unanimously rejected!! reason for you now to edit my comment.
@teejay…no one is going to edit ur comment..i liked the movie. iahev nothing to do with films or shriram raghavan or anurag kashyap..pll.like things genuinely here..we talk abt cinema..its not a mutual admiration society …i havent praised the movie out of bounds but i found it good..better cinema i would say.As far as ur comments go…One “phrase..”to each his/her own”…the best part about this site is that you can speak out ur mind like you did.Welcome again to PFC..hope ull have a nice stay.:)
we are so used to watching HEROES.. our cinema has always been about built up, that we want to clap when the hero enters and when we don’t feel like clapping, we think it’s a problem.. why can’t the protaganist be a wimp..
you didn’t like the film that’s ok.. i know people who hated it, but we can debate about our POV’s..
Vijay shocking that you compare the work of Raghavan to the Genius of your namesake Vijay Anand.
Apart from the other countless touches Goldie’s films had, his characters were so completely endearing,entertaining and original. In ‘Johnny G’ not only is the protagonist utterly devoid of any life, there is not a single character that grabs you. This in a film where the protagonist drives the plot..!
It is just not enough to use portraits of Vijay Anand & Hadley Chase and a title montage packaged to look like one of Goldie’s gems to merit being compared to one. I seriously suggest that you & others like you spend the next few days watching Vijay Anands masterpieces and thereafter tendering an apology to the memory of a great master who must be surely turning in his grave..!
Anurag.. go watch ” the talented Mr. Ripley’ ( if u and Sriram who might have ripped it from have not already watched it) if u want to see what a ‘wimp’ should actually be characterized as. Dont underestimate the caliber of your audience to prove a point. It sounds terribly patronising.
Most of us do know about wimps when we see one. Heroes can make great wimps.. but directors who are wimps cant make great heroes.
well teejay sorry.. we apologise
btw johnnygaddar was written and registered way before even minghella started writing the ripley.. it took more than eleven years to find money to make it.. even if minghella would have wanted to make his ripley in hindi in india, there is no way he would have found money..
how does it matter? The idea is to get it right!!
The idea is to create a chaaracter worthy of being a protagonist to carry out your film!!
Your character may be a weak character but not weakly etched!! Maybe it would have been better if Raghavan would have mulled over the script for another 11 years.
I think Anurag you are doing a disservice of sorts.. you an people like Bhavani who praise a film so much tht audience expectations go beyond limits and so does their disaapointment.. this is the reason films fail!! Be fair!! Its about peoples money and your credibility!!
Yesterday i saw Johny Gaddaar and was spell bound by its impact. Not many directors understand “craft” the way Shriram has understood and applied. My heartiest congrajulations to Shriram. What i liked about the film was its multi layered structure and how it unfolded at the creator’s behest also how each charcater co-related with the other, at every twist and turn and how thier relationships were affected at the same time the story kept moving parrellely! also the fact that the director comes out to be in complete control through out as not only does he play with characters internally…but he teases his audiences too!…the audience knows that its JOHNY who is the GADDAAR…but at the same time at no point in the film does he/she feel lost…from story point of view…
Evil is presented in most humble/lethal/cool {all together} fashion and it works!! kudos to director here too as he has used neil nitin mukesh superbly!
I remembered the VAT 69 days of films when this kind of movies were made and watched…to make a movie like this in todays day and age of mush romance and bhagam bhag comdey where instant gratification has stepped in, with a rationale of commercialisation, i think it only takes a director/writer of complete faith in his craft to make such an awesome movie.
for me this film is like learning manual. of how to write and structure a thriller!
Hats off Shriram!
ps: hey shriram: years ago when i worked for UTV as an executive producer on SEA HAWKS i had come to your house for a possible direction do on that show… I remember your house as it reflected your passion for cinema through those posters of classics films stuck on your house walls starting from your door istelf.} hope to see you and congrajulate you on this film personally someday.
nirav vaidya
There you go.. another friend coming to the rescue..
I am going to down a whole bottle of vat69 to forget this film!!
ChEeRs!#4
Teejay if you are the only person here who doesn’t like the film, isn’t it possible that something’s wrong with you? We have also seen the film at theatres, we have also felt how the audience was receptive to the smallest nuances in the movie… Maybe, just maybe, you have your own vendetta here or just want your 15 KB of fame by going against the run of play. Johnny Gaddaar is an absolute classic and the best suspense thriller to come out of Bollywood in a long, long time. Sorry friend, you couldn’t join the party.
Hey Teejay…the audi where I saw the flick yesterday was FULL…mabe coz it was Oct 2…but nevertheless everyone seemd to be enjoying every bit of it…I woyuldn’t praise it to the skies..but it was good enough–paisa vasool thriller after ages…reminded me of Jewel Theif ect…
I watched Johnny Gaddar on Sunday to a packed house in Bangalore and (this will really suprise Teejay) and the scenes were cheered (not jeered as some people would like to believe ;)) by the audience. It is one of the best movies of the year. And I am not a follower or fan of any of these guys. I am just a viewer who likes to watch good cinema.
After reading the comments I was reminded of a trade analyst on one of the channels who was hell bent on finding some faults with the screenplay. I guess our eyes are so tuned to watching average fare that whenever we encounter good cinema we try and find faults in it.
And to contradict further I think both Vijay Anand and Anthony Minghella would have loved Johnny Gaddar.
As regards the weakness of the hero or the weakness of evil who has said that a hero or an evil mind cannot be weak? In fact that vulnerability in all the characters in Johnny Gaddar made the movie all the morel realistic and likeable. Any one of us can be one of those characters.
I think after seeing our Hindi superheroes and supervillains this is a shock….;)
Come on boys, grow up…. Teejay you may have not liked the film and Pratim and Anurag and Bhavani may have loved it… It’s all about personal choice so why fight and take it personally? To each his own…. Chill!!
Just wanna point out that ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ was an adaptation of a the 1955 novel by Patricia Highsmith (most of AM’s films are adaptations), and not the sole creation of Minghella, so some of the credit should be accorded to her…
I can understand Teejay, i too watched the moview after looking at so much praise from virtually everybody, but seriously was dissapointed,
the story is weak, the cops dont seem to be present, people r killed and buried and nobody seems to be present as evidence, and everything is so fast, and the scenes where the Neil gets guilty consious were pathetic!!!
The the HERO cant act,
Manorma was a far better thriller, cant understand how ppl can feel more thrilled by the JG than by Manorma. Perhaps the built up given was not necessary, or if i hadnt read so much of praise, would have liked it more. but i didnt feel excited while watching the movie at all, and scenes were predictable.
A chat with Sriram about JG and noir here:
http://in.rediff.com/movies/2007/oct/03sriram.htm
@ teejay..we respect opinions here..but not so belligerent opinions..talking about peoples credentials…thats a touchy issue..if ur talkin abt credentials…wat abt ur regular run of the mill movies which are packaged better than ferrero rocher. what abt their credentials..they fool the masses…and here we are talking about a sizeable number people who like good movies …who got to the movies on a hunch that its gonna be nice..i do not hold anybody responsible if the movie is bad..its you who is making the decision..to go to the movies or not.
I’m visiting PFC after a long time.
I mean, it’s ridiculous. When will we finally take a good film? JG is one of the best this year. It’s started poorly. When there’s a sign of improve in BO by good word-of-mouth reviews, some people are still showing their prejudice. These “mass-loving” people are so much concerned about cinema that it’s bothering me big time. A hundred people will not step towards the hall after reading just 2 negative lines after 10000 postive ones. Why? These are the people who will run in flocks to watch s****y Bhool Bhulaiyas and recommend that to everyone. Why can’t we come out of this idiotic mentality? That’s why films like Heyy Babyy, Partner become huge hits and MSFU becomes an outright washout. Why? When will we learn to eulogize good cinema? Thankfully Chak De defied all rules. We need more films like that.
Long live JG & Sriram!
Its all about stars in Bollywood… If Chak De was made without a star then it would have been a washout as well.
Thankfully, the star-system, too, is not working well nowadays. The washouts of Eklavya, Salaam-E-Ishq, Nishabd, Marigold are enough to prove that. Incidentally, Chak De was on its way of becoming a below average BO success despite the magnetic name of SRK. The brand SRK registered quite an average start at the box-office, much like an underdog film. The presence of SRK definitely helped that film later. But word of mouth did the main trick. It proved a blockbuster in days to come.:d
good piece of thought orson welles:d
Thanks buddy:):)
Oops! I forgot to mention a film in the list in #39. Jhoom Bababar Jhoom flopped too!
@bumblebee - I never made a comparison between Johnny Gaddar and the great Vijay Anand. Either that or I must be confused about the definition of the word “comparison”. Please do educate me and I shall attentively listen. I merely said I enjoyed the pastiche. Raghavan is in awe of Vijay Anand, and as a fan of Anand, I enjoyed another fan showing his love for his cinema. No comparisons.
As for your comments on Johnny Gaddaar, I respect your opinion. You have a right to it. It didn’t work for you. That’s fine.
It worked for me. The film entertained me and yes, no doubt the characterization was a little weak, but it did not bother me enough to be turned off. I was having a good time.
And as for your advice for me and others like me to go watch Vijay Anand’s masterpieces…thank you very much for it.
As for tendering an apology…well, now’s when I ask you to shove it.
One scene that just came to my mind, a conflicted Johnny tosses the coin, to go to Goa or to chuck the plan. Tails. “Best of three” he says. Tails again. “Best of five”. Heads. The music(”TOSS”) comes pumping. The rest is history but it’s just one of the moments that make up a memorable film.
Or one more(if you please). Our ‘heroine’ is travelling in a bus, gets into the chitter-chatter with her ‘boyfriend’, while he asks her niceties like what she is wearing. It just so happens that the ‘boyfriend’ is Johnny. He goes on to surprise and shock us in what was just the beginning of it all.
Just one more!(gosh, it started again!)
In their second scene together, Johnny says, main tumhare saath is third rate hotel mein raat guzarne thodi aaya hoon. CUT. Johnny caressing his ‘heroine’.
Or the timeless train scene.
or the ones with Vinay Pathak and his bar gang.
Or the multiple cut-ins of sleazy songs, a throw-back to the 70’s again, for e.g. the “Zindagi ittefaaq hai” sequence.
or even how the director chooses to introduces some characters, while say some random thing in case of others(it reminded me of Bluffmaster, in the same maddening emotion that constitutes the magic of films).
To all the intellectual heads trying to dissect Johhny, and pass it off in name of ‘retro’ cinema,
“It’s not the age, it’s the mileage”
:)
More informations about Actor Vijay… @
Hi,
Don’t know how relevant this is -
Dharmendra as a south indian character ‘Sheshadri’ and again Govind Namdeo as another southie (or isn’t he?) called ‘kalyan’ are just not done. Someone’s written abt Dh’s english speaking abilities but him speaking urduised hindi is really bad. Esp as Sriram himself is a south indian. Plotwise - the ‘main event’ - Shiva’s death - with all the dhishum dhishum in the train, banging into the basin, how is it that no one hears them? Ditto when Shardul gets shot in his office and - falls on a glass-top table! Maybe these are unimportant for the director but if there’s any explanation i’d like to hear it.
Speaking of tributes..
When Rimi first meets Neil at Highway and then goes to pizza hut, they quarrels and when she is planning to leave, Niel tries to mimic someone saying “Yeh pizza mein akele kaayenge kya?”..who was he trying to personify?..Was it dev anand?..please help.
@pvm ..i think it was sanjeev kumar ..if i remember right …
//
Loved comment #44 from Tushar! So true, these were the vignettes that made JG worth watching again and again and again…
It took 11 years to find money to make it and yet it could not make enough money. Sadly, that means another JG will have to wait another 11 years before Indian cinema truly comes of age and stops sending Eklavya-type crap for Oscars.
JG will go the “Andaaz Apna Apna” way, methinks. BO dud upon release and then such a mega-success on the DVD circuit that today, one discovers a gazillion new jokes every time we watch it. Aamir’s best movie and Salman’s was the perfect foil. Had AAA succeeded, RKS could have gone the Billy Wilder way, moving effortlessly into great comedy after making some of the best serious cinema.
Luckily for Teejay, that doesn’t happen. We still celebrate “family” ties by giving best debut award to Mr.Ranbir Kapoor. Despite Bheja Fry, Paanch and Johny Gaddaar, Yashraj melodrama continues to overwhelm Bollywood at least in the forseeable future…