Johny Gaddar Movie Review

Warning: Some plot spoilers included

Johny Gaddar is the latest offering from Sriram Raghavan, the man who gave us Ek Hasina Thi. The film is inspired by some of veteran director Vijay Anand's works and James Hadley Chase novels. The main protagonist(or should we say, antagonist!) Vikram aka Johny also borrows some of his ideas from the Amitabh Bacchhan thriller Parwana.

The premise is simple yet very different from your average Bollywood fare. Five conmen plan a deal which will make each of them richer by 50 Lakh in 3 days. Sheshadri(Dharmendra) is supposedly the top guy, a la Danny Ocean. He's supported by Prakash(Vinay Pathak), Shardul(Zakir Hussain), Shiva(Daya Shetty) and Vikram(Neil Mukesh). Vikram however, has other plans; he borrows several ideas from his James Hadley Chase novels and Parwana to double-cross his fellow associates and elope with Mini(Rimi Sen), Shardul's wife! Vikram's plan however, goes haywire when he accidentally kills Shiva in the first phase of his plan. After that point, Vikram's lady luck helps him escape every tryst with destiny untill the climax, where poetic justice is delivered.

The film had all the makings of a taut thriller, but it is marred by lack of pace. The sript was indeed interesting with one accident leading to another and so on and so forth, but it was executed in a very sluggish manner. The director seemed to have lost his vision after the intermission, where he went absolutely overboard with character development and took too much screen time familiarizing us with their personal/family lives. The sadistic outings with Shiva's girlfriend Vaijanthi were totally uneccesary, and they really left a bad taste in your mouth and stomach. Through the entire length of the film, there was not one scene which thrilled you. The only moment where the script catches you off guard is Sheshadri's dying sequence, and it was very well executed too. The script meanders a lot!, particularly after the intermission and you just don't know what the director wants; does he want to thrill you, does he want to make you sob, does he want you to empathize or does he want to tickle your funny bone? Johny Gaddar is a perfect example of a brilliant plot gone awry because of too many distractions. Part of my dissatisfaction might have to do with the fact that I had went into the theater to watch an on-the-edge-of-your-seat suspense thriller, but even if I judge the film as just another movie..it still falls flat on most of the grounds.

Coming on to the performances; Dharmendra is going through the golden twilight of his career, and he gives a commendable performance here. It could have been much better though, and his role does't really do justice to the awe-inspiring persona he has. Neil Mukesh is just about ok, he looked rather silly in the scenes where he had to convey anxiety and fear through his eyes. His Travolta-esque dance sequence was also very childish. You can't complain much though, given the fact that it was his first time acting. I'm not very keen on predicting something for him at this point though; let's just wait and watch. Rimi Sen gives one of her better performances in a rather conveniently stupid role. Zakir Hussain as Shardul was excellent and Vinay Pathak's was THE performance of the film. Vinay Pathak has charmed us with his comic timing before, and with this film he proves that he's an actor of serious mettle; his introduction scene was one of the better ones in the film. The film will tank in the single screes for sure and it just might do decent business in the multiplex centers..don't take my word for it though. To sum it up, Johny Gaddar is a half baked effort with very few interesting sequences and manages to bore you for the better part of it's length. Yes, it IS different, but I still have to call a spade a spade..right?

Rating: **