Sriram Raghvan comes out as a very good director in the new lot of director. There are a very few directors in India who get inspired from popular fiction books (thrillers to be precise, cheesy at times) and can craft it well in to a picture, Sriram Raghvan seems one of them for sure. Earlier he had done a well made Shidney Sheldon type of thriller "Ek Hasina thi" (I thought it was inspired from "If tomorrow comes") and now he does a James Hadley Chase.
Would be waiting for his 3rd flick, when he tries comedy(Happy Birthday starring John Abraham and Amisha Patel) for sure.
Would be waiting for his 3rd flick, when he tries comedy(Happy Birthday starring John Abraham and Amisha Patel) for sure. Johnny Gaddar is a story of 5 cons who are going to have a big deal with a corrupt police inspector Kalyan (Played well by Govind Namdeo), making a quick fortune in the way. The whole plan is well planned by Sheshadri (played by Dharmendra) with 4 of his partners Shardul, Prakash, Shiva and Vikram (Zakir Hussain, Vinay Pathak, Daya Shetty and Neil respectively).
The plan falls apart when one of them, Vikram betrays the others for money(and there are no spoilers here as you know it from the beginning that he is the one). The story then continues with a maze of well planned smart moves by vikram to save himself. And as the fortune favours the brave, Vikram moves on with some good escapes unexpectedly turning his ways. There is a subplot running through out the film where Vikram falls for Shardul's wife (Rimi sen). Unwillingly (a spoiler here) Vikram ends up killing all his partners as and when they come to know that it was he who did it to them. The story is neither very different nor new, but it is the execution of the film that makes it worth a watch. Though the movie does not have what we can say exactly twists and turns, there are many unexpected things happening on the screen that keeps your interest alive.
As far as acting is concerned all the characters in the movie are aptly played by the actors. The underplayed act of Neil as Vikram is definitely the most impressive debut this year till now. 
He has a pretty innocent face to carry on the conning part well. He needs a crash course in dialogue delivery though. Vinay Pathak as Prakash is very good. 
Must watch is the scene where he gets introduced, definitely his type of humor.
He has a pretty innocent face to carry on the conning part well. He needs a crash course in dialogue delivery though. Vinay Pathak as Prakash is very good. Must watch is the scene where he gets introduced, definitely his type of humor. Zakir Hussain turns up with a performance that suits the situation. Eccentric but stupid at times. 
But for the last Hamming special scene from Dharmedra, his performance too was as good as others.
Govind Namdeo plays his part well with a good comic timing. Rimi Sen, Ashwini Khaleskar and Rasika Joshi are just OK, which is way belo average compared to their male counterparts in the movie.
But for the last Hamming special scene from Dharmedra, his performance too was as good as others.Govind Namdeo plays his part well with a good comic timing. Rimi Sen, Ashwini Khaleskar and Rasika Joshi are just OK, which is way belo average compared to their male counterparts in the movie. Sriram Raghvan has a definite knack in presenting his things differently. Great work by him as a director. There are so numerous scenes that he has shot so differently that at times I feel he should be teaching in a film making school. Special mention to his tribute to old hindi movies. Really good. The credits for the film when the movie starts is trend setting... absolutely wonderful.
Music by shankar mahadevan is good, especially the part where the music from old movies is played at an interesting point in the movie.
So am I completely impressed with the movie? The answer is definite NO.
I think this movie goes on to prove for me that movies are more than Direction, acting and presentation. Weak areas as per me for the movie were not so good Editing (Pooja Surti), absence of a thick story line and Characterization. Only Niel had his motives, role and details well etched out but for others though it must have been defined very well at the time of writing, it did not come out in the movie. Visit the official website of the movie and read about the characters. These were the things that I could not figure out very clearly in the movie.
Moreover there was no guilt that I could see Vikram had when he was killing all of them but after killing you see a fine little glimmer of guilt in his eyes in other scenes. That made the killings almost unrealistic for me.
The side plots apart from Neil and Rimi's were all weak. Dharmendra listening to his Dead wife's audio cassettes, Vinay Pathak fighting with his wife, Shardul's club, Shiva's Mother and girlfriend all were not properly developed and compared to the main events of the movie, this part of the movie was a big let down.
I would have loved a dark ending with Neil surviving everything and getting what he wanted.
Another thing that Sriram Raghvan missed on during the screenplay was clarity. The entire reason and planning for the incidence that starts it all did not come up very clearly. The end is not exactly predictable but is not surprising too. At times Unpredictability gets monotonus in the film.
But overall a very well crafted good movie, that will definitely be liked by people who wants to see "different" cinema. Thumbs up to the director and actors for carrying this risky part off with aplomb.
Though good, could have been better 3* for this different kind of thriller.
1 comment:
Good (analytical) review, but I feel you are spilling too many beans!
I think the reader would want to see a review before watching the movie. :-)
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