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Johnny Gaddar- Keep your Eyes on the Loot
Shriram Raghavan’s electric caper ‘Johnny Gaddar’ begins in reverential silence as it doffs its hat to the pulpmeisters- Vijay Anand and James Hadley Chase, black and white photographs accompanying the written tribute.
Thus, begins its no-holds-barred obsession with images- pulp and kinky washed over with the electric tangerine and sound- retro Rafi by way of pure spin jhankaar.
Glance at the posters. Imagine the colors leaking out the posters. Imagine the charcters come to life. Imagine a low-life world of neon and intrigue. That is Johnny Gadar. Popculture overdrive. From the insane title-credits that implode with fury and the smudgy color of dime-store novels like you bend a comic in your hands and release your thumb to see the pages flip ahead in a kinetic kaliedescope. The posters make it clear- it’s a genre of pure provocation, exciting your baser senses. A colorful mindless interplay of sex and violence rushing through an obligatory plot mechanism like a Mumbai local.
In true caper style, Raghavan wasting absolutely no time, sets up his principal characters- twisted cop
, an aging crook who still plays by the golden rules of another age
, a couple of if-you-have-friends-like-this-then-you-need-no-enemies that will help electify the dynamics
, the blunt instrument
, the young tyke
and the broads
.
Spin the concoction on a roulette of drugs
and money
and that one element, that raises ‘Johnny Gaddar’ from the ‘pop, enjoy and evaporate’ likes of ‘Ek Chalis..’- nostalgia.
Visually, Raghavan hits bulls eye. Editor Pooja Surti, cinematographer C.K. Muralitharan and the set and dress designers, the make-up all conspire to elevate every visual to a push button that have you hinging onto seats and chewing nails until they hurl us into the next scenario. The effect is vertiginous, pulsating and psycadelic. 
How does one put the soundtrack?
A pastiche of the old and new. Like an ACD playing on a phonograph or a vinyl playing in something digital mixed with classic soundbytes like an open air screening of an old pulp film is beng held nearby. Absolute masterpiece that endows the pulp storyline with a rhythm, beat and verve.
The cast is pitch perfect with Dharam Paaji drawing on his caper days and the slur-of-speech-by-way-of-Bagpiper pulling off with ease the loss and dilemma of the aging gangster, Vinay Pathak and Zakir Hussain playing each other the way only character actors can, Govind Namdeo hammering the sadist down, debutant Niel Mukesh exhuding sinister confidence and the femme fatales 
Rimi Sen and Ashwini Kalsekar holding thier own in a way that give the artist of the James Hadley Chase covers, a muse.
‘Johnny Gadar runs on pure vintage pulp gas 
and Shriram Raghavan wears it proudly on the sleeve. Style over substance… but what style!
and if one ever needs an argument on how glorious superficiality can be… scroll down….
(images courtesy- www.johncoulhart.com, www.dvdbeaver.com, hervoleas.typepad.com, www.tsutpen.blogpsot.com, www.wikipdeia.org, www.discomusic.com, whatsnew.mastikamantra.com, lib.berkely.edu, rexbox.com, thehotspotonline.com, forwardnotiontheatre.com, fantasticfiction.co.uk)
23 Responses to “Johnny Gaddar- Keep your Eyes on the Loot”
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Killers compilation of pics siddharth
thanks man.. just what Johnny Gaddar is.. way more killer..
saw it and liked it..the retro feel is killer..dig on retro..imagine the titles..well done titles.
Wow @ da pix! To use Sourav’s words - a “killer compilation” of retro-kitsch artwork.
ps. LOVED your imaginative and spot-on writing, Siddharth, especially the 1st para - awesome descriptions!
Hey,lovely posters man.Where did u dig them all up :D.
Hey Siddharth,
I wish people see it in the same light as you did… cos that’s how its meant to be watched…
Saale Raapchaandoos, poster ki dukaan!
nice article man, I am checking the ‘glorious superficiality’ tomorrow…
superb sid…that compilation was awesome…. :d/
“I wish people see it in the same light as you did
My review in The Telegraph
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070930/asp/entertainment/story_8376038.asp
Going to watch it anyway, but Pratim, your mention of the Don style title sequence has sold me! Love Don and have a thing for cool, imaginative credits/title sequences.
I just saw Jhonny G and then read ur article! Sid, superb description of an excellent movie…I wish movie runs to keep shriram motivated to bring out different indian cinema
review in hindi by ajay brahmatmaj…
http://chavannichap.blogspot.com/2007/09/blog-post_28.html
There are two kinds of films, ones that are brimming out of self-conviction, galvanized in their narcissistic love. You feel it from the word go. And then there are those which take an entire length of self-exploration. They can
and finally someone sums it up beautifully:
“But give Raghavan this much: once he grows up and gets over his I
Great great great movie……..
India’s answer to american cult’s which grow on Writed CD circuit..Usual Suspects, Pulp Fiction etc…
I jus hope ppl actually go n c it in theatre n not on CDs,TV repeats a la Andaz Apna Apna
[...] Siddharth Pillai, Passion for Cinema Rating: Thumbs up …one element, that raises ‘Johnny Gaddar’ from the ‘pop, enjoy and evaporate’ likes of ‘Ek Chalis..’- nostalgia…. See full review [...]
:d saala
sid GADDAR……:)
too good dude….
[...] Johnny Gaddar- Keep your Eyes on the Loot [...]
3 hrs back: Had seen some references to various characters in Johnny
Gaddaar in some blogs, and the song Move your body tonight’s guitar
riff was infectious. So just picked up the DVD without a lot of
expectations. After all the only two familiar faces in the movie were
Dharmendra and Vinay Pathak.
Now after 3 hrs: The movie is nothing shot of brilliant, in all
film-making departments.
The script: Tight from the first frame till the last, never leave you
to catch a breath.
The cinematography: a treat! Well, nothing out of the world,
spectacular, of sort, but very very subtle, and simply rocks! Some
shots create a tension/curiosity and resolves itself few moments
later. Some shots like when Neil is dreaming of getting beaten by Shiva
and then camera pans onto a sleeping Neil, on the same shot - more than
the shot itself, I admire the thought process of the cinematographer.
This whole create-tension-then-reveal aspect of the cinematography is
truly in-sync with the movie. Some shots like Zakir Hussain falling on
the glass center table in slowmo is very well shot. I kept rewinding
many scenes like that. Truly artistic. A+
Music: The tremolo efct of the guitar in the title song is even more
infectious than the Hard Kaur’s guitar riff (in ‘Move your body’)! And
btw, the harmonium and ‘doob ja mere pyar mein’ over a hip-hop number
is absolutely a riot.
Editing: Sleek. Of course, half of my appreciation for cinamtography
couldn’t have been possible without a solid editing.
Acting: Everyone from main characters to the SHiva’s mom character do a
very good job. Zakir Hussain and Vinay Pathak are just treat to watch.
As newcomers, if 2007 belonged to Deepika Padukone (of OSO) lookwise, I
think the year belongs to Neil for both look and acting! Would love to
watch more of him.
Direction: Bravo! I must admit, haven’t seen any of Sriram’s movies
before, but its my homework to watch some of them! Hope to see more of
his work in future. I hear the movie was not released worldwide, its
sad to see many junk movies are released with much fanfare, but gems
like this goes unnoticed. Fantastic direction, and to bring out such
stellar performance out of newcomers as well as lesser known actors, is
admirable.
Overall, the movie Rocks, and one of the best of the year (2007)
alongwith Metro, Bheja Fry, Jab We Met, Chak De India, and a few
others.
Johnny Gaddar is a great film. Just hope it is not a lift from a remote film one might stumble upon someday! Earlier, Sriram redid ‘Double Jeopardy’ as Ek hasina Thi and cornered undeserved praise!
Earlier, Sriram redid