Thrillers and Hindi cinema are not a match made in heaven. Most of them are pathetic (that is not to say Indian cinema has not produced good thrillers...for reference watch Satyajit Ray's Sonar Kella or even the Byomkesh Bakshi series on TV). That's why I was completely hooked after watching Sriram Raghavan's earlier film, Ek Hasina Thi. It was an out and out thriller with an awesome ending. It had set a precedent for me in terms of genre. When I heard that Johnny Gaddar was Raghavan's film, I was scared. The track record of Indian directors when it came to sustaining the high of a first film wasn't great (think Ram Gopal Verma's Rangeela and then his latter films).
However, the film started with great promise. The atmosphere was perfectly set: pouring rain, a man opening a garage door, a gloved hand holding a gun and boom....blood everywhere. The film then begins in the form of flashback. Five business associates, Sheshadri (Dharmendra), Prakash (Vinay Pathak), Shardul (Zakir Hussain), Shiva (Daya Shetty) and Vikram (Neil Nitin Mukesh) plan a business deal to make a fast buck. Vikram decides to double cross the gang and run off with the money. His reason though is not purely mercenery. He wants to elope with Shardul's wife, Mini (Rimi Sen). An accident leads to murder and the chase to find the betrayer begins in earnest.
While the identity of the "gaddar" is no mystery, one somehow cannot believe that things are that simple. My friends and I kept trying to guess the real identity of the "gaddar". But as it turned out, there was no other "gaddar". It left me with a curiously unsatisfied feeling. "Khoda pahar nikla chuha". That's an apt epitah for the movie and that was also the reason why I was curiously uninspired to write a review of the film although I did enjoy it. However, the movie had its moments. The way the "gaddar's" identity is revealed to the last surviving gang member is a brilliant touch. That one scene shows that the director respects his viewers.
A word for the new comer, Neil Nitin Mukesh (he is Mukesh's grandson). He is a treat to watch. Although he doesn't revel in blood and gore, he kills without a qualm. For him, its just a logical step that he needs to take if he wants to succeed in running away with his lover. Each actor is good in his respective role although the only weak one is Rimi Sen. She doesn't really add much to the role and plays the stereotype of a damsel in distress on expected lines. Rasika Joshi as Pathak's wife is commendable.
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2 comments:
Nice Review
One serious note of disagreement with your ‘apt epitaph’ on Johnny Gaddar. Barely half an hour into the film, we are shown who the Gaddar is. The suspense, however, revolves entirely on the course of events that is to follow. The tensions were kept alive for over two hours after this revelation. To me, this is a stupendous task for any director: to weave a complex narrative, to sustain the viewers’ interest and never allowing him to second guess on whats coming up. A pattern did emerge, where the discerning feels that Vikram would keep succeeding in saving himself with his presence of mind and a stroke of luck. But what about the first shot? You are almost sure its he who is going to be killed. But by whom? Everyone else is being killed by him after his identity is revealed. The audience can do nothing to second guess, surrenders himself to the plot and savour the twists and turns.
Raghavan was determined to explain everything and for that he took his own time. The film was typically unhurried in its execution: all characters were introduced in a crisp manner and the events played in a balanced approach to time. The character development in the film preceded plot development. Most of our commercial directors seem to forget the fact that characters are as important to a film as is the plot, if not more. One notable exception is Being Cyrus by Homi Adjania. Being Cyrus was much crispier and tight in its plot. There were at least six characters in this film who were introduced throughout the plot, not in the beginning like Johnny Gaddar. But structurally the films were altogether different. While Cyrus presented us with an aura of mystery (we don’t even know what he is going to do), we were much informed when it comes to Gaddar. Like in the beginning of a history book Raghavan introduces the Dramatis Personae in a true filmi style. He needs to be lauded: the plot is much more complex than Ek Haseena Thi, there are too many characters and any director could have easily messed up. Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress) by Ray belongs to this category of films where the suspense lies in what is to happen, rather than who has done what. Would you still say "Khoda pahar nikla chuha"?
One final word of praise for RGV. He was the one to launch Raghavan through his Factory. And therein lies his success: he has managed to create an alternative commercial platform in the Bollywood and infused fresh thimking in it. He has challenged the status quo (read Karan Johar types) in its own turf. There is now a bunch of young directors trying to make films for an intelligent and discerning audience. And honestly speaking, I won’t regret the disappearance of consciously made art films that were so much in plenty once upon a time.
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