Johnny Gaddaar

Rating: 7.5/10

One of the harder tasks in the acting business is to act like youre acting. Thats what debutante Neil Nitin Mukesh has to do most of the time in Johnny Gaddaar, the second film from Sriram Raghavan, who gave us the tight thriller Ek Hasina Thi. Three things were unconventional about Ek Hasina Thi one, there was no hero, two, no songs, and three, it was Saifs first negative role, and one he played quite well, too. Ek Hasina Thi did moderately well, and I was curious as to why Johnny Gaddaar hadnt taken the same path.

There were barely a dozen people in Anuradha cinema hall when I went for the night show yesterday. A good film generally picks up on word-of-mouth, but that didnt seem to be the case last night.

Johnny Gaddaar begins a little haphazardly, Ill admit, but once things start moving, it becomes quite a taut thriller. Vikram (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is part of a gang of five (Dharmendra, Vinay Pathak, Zakir Hussain, Daya Shetty are the others) who each put in 50 lakh for a deal with a policeman (Govind Namdeo) thatll fetch them double profit in a few days. Vikram, however decides to steal all the money and flee to Canada with his lady love, Rimii Sens character, who just happens to be Zakir Hussains wife. Obviously, things go slightly wrong, and it begins to get messy for Vikram.

Too many reviewers think their job is to tell you half the story of a film. Thats not my intention, though. As Ive said before, you can make a good film out of nonexistent story and a boring film out of a good story. Bas Ek Pal, which I watched yesterday afternoon, is an example of the latter. Johnny Gaddaar, on the other hand, not only has a good story, but is told quite tightly, with satisfying twists and turns, and a fitting ending. Most Hindi thrillers go really crazy from about the second half onwards, with corkscrew twists and revelations that are about as believable as George W Bush turning out to be an Iraqi undercover spy. The situations in Johnny Gaddaar bring a smile to your face, instead of eliciting groans of Oh no and Hey Bhagwan.

Neil Nitin Mukesh is quite good-looking, and has fairly sharp features. He looks very Hollywoody, in fact. His resemblance to Hrithik Roshan is so striking in some scenes that these two should be the first choice for any director who wants to make a Manmohan Desai-type bichhre-huwe-bhai film. With regard to his acting skills, hes competent, but as I mentioned in the beginning, he has the hard task of doing two-layer acting, which might not be easy to carry out with finesse in just your first film. He doesnt do anything wrong, but a more seasoned actor could have done more. Well need to see him in at least one more film to deliver a proper verdict.

The supporting cast, truth be told, steals the show in most of the scenes. Dharmendra looks solid in his part. Ive read that he was especially happy to be acting with Neil because his grandfather, Nitin Mukesh, had been the singer of Dharmendras first song in his film career. Vinay Pathak is a perfect actor. He continues to deliver, following Khosla Ka Ghosla and Bheja Fry. Zakir Hussain falls in the same category. He usually plays villains (Sarkar and a million other RGV films), and when he finally played one of the good guys, a bomb expert, in Black Friday, he put on such a different persona that I didnt even realize it was him until I read his name in the end credits. Rimii doesnt have much variety, but shes okay. At least shes not as irritating as a million other bimbos who dont know the first thing about acting.

Johnny Gaddaar is a good film, although it takes a little time to get off the blocks. I pondered over why it hasnt been a hit, and I think its because theres no true hero in it. Average Indian audiences, in my humble lunatic opinion, are escapist in nature and need a morally upright hero to root for. And in the context of the film, the hero is actually the villain.

Bottomline

You might like it if you like: Noir thrillers like The Score, Ek Hasina Thi, or maybe Oceans Eleven