Re: Johnny Gaddaar Hindi Video Download
Anna Pybus
Red almost never fills the entire frame in Johnny Gaddaar, but the colour is used to sensational effect all across the periphery -- beanbags, shirts, blankets covering sitars, mid-burger slices of tomato -- constantly highlighted and meticulously framed by persistently duller colours around it.
It's not black and white or made largely on a computer, but the superlative way director Sriram Raghavan dabs the Red onto this film begs comparison with a totally different world of vitally discoloured noir: Robert Rodriguez' Sin City. Take a bow, cinematographer CK Muraleedharan, masterfully executed.
And on such a scarlet note our film opens, a studly youngster looking at the world through blood-tinted sunglasses. His name is Vikram (Neil Mukesh), and over the next four or so days, he and buddies Prakash (Vinay Pathak), Shardul (Zakir Hussain) and Shiva (Daya Shetty), under the able guidance of Seshadrisaab (Dharmendra [Images]) plan to double a fortune.
In a supremely pulp plot likely born out of a hardcore diet of Jack Daniels and James Hadley Chase, our twisty film begins by showing us the last scene -- and then neatly, without fuss, introducing us to the titular traitor. And, mind you, telling us that he has a scene with Shardul's wife (Rimii Sen). Not hoarding our plot-points, are we?
Thus begins a tale of impulsive double-crossing, our Amitabh-aping gaddaar inadvertently, but coolly, opening a can of corpses. Blood. Banknotes. Betrayals. Bollywoodity. The action flows in fits and starts, akin to bullets from a revolver wrapped in an ochre car-cleaning kapda: hard-hitting when pressed, yet more or less inconspicuous -- deceptively slow, even -- the rest of the time. It's a two-hour ride, yet there's lots of room for brooding between the lines. Or, more appropriately, the lies.
Named after a throwaway scene involving a Johny Mera Naam film clip -- and having nothing whatsoever else to do with the Vijay Anand classic, forget what you might have heard -- Johnny Gaddaar is a hardcore 1970s trip. From funky lowslung camera angles to a kick-ass old school title sequence, from a snazzy shot to go to interval to the edgiest soundtrack to hit Hindi cinema in ages, Johnny's got it all. And as befits a film trying to fit into bell-bottomed trousers, the tone occasionally jars, seems too loud. Yup, it wears flared collars too. Perfect.
As for references, this film laps up thrillers by the dozen, borrowing entire twists and techniques from cool cinema gone by, but earnest enough to keep loyally acknowledging the sources. It's a bizarrely fun world where crooks, cops and the conned all watch the same movies, to different effect. Wind that around a retro soundtrack -- used with near-flawless efficiency -- and this is a treat to all fans of the genre. And I mean the word 'fan' in its most accepting sense: if you watch The Great Gambler or Jewel Thief for at least a half-hour every time they're on television; if you like your racy paperbacks; if you like trying to guess upcoming twists: you qualify.
The acting is pretty much top-notch, as a realistic thriller demands. Vinay Pathak is great as a big-table, big-ego gambler; Zakir Hussain carries off ridiculously florid shirts and a tough role with disarming natural ease; Govind Namdeo is spot-on as a corrupt, code-loving cop with an atypically good eye for leatherwear; and then there's Dharmendra. Mouthing English like only he can (which may be both a good and bad thing, but always undeniably memorable), he's the film's authority figure -- rightfully first billed in the opening credits -- and when that hand slaps someone, you, burrowed into your multiplex seat, flinch. The old lion heart warms up to the role, and seems to enjoy himself -- very amusing to watch.
Rimii isn't bad, but is thankfully not given too much to do, the rest of the ensemble cast managing the more demanding histrionics. Almost equally relieved of high strung acting duty is leading man Neil, used constantly in the film, but largely as eye-candy.
And what eye candy this is. Ladies and gents -- and I say this with a record of unblemished heterosexuality -- the man is reasonably edible. I see what the women are melting about. A cooler, leaner and more cerebral looking version of Hrithik Roshan [Images], there's a tender softness about Neil that gives him the feel of depth. He acts quite all right -- though his English dialogues need polish -- but this isn't a testing role. It demands well-paced coolth, which he delivers strongly.
A discerning woman friend, raving about the man for the last two weeks, was torn while describing a scene -- Neil walks into his pad and, while tidying up, grooves to the beat of that fab Move Your Body song with a complete lack of self-consciousness -- whether 'sex on buttered toast' was hyperbolic enough to do the man justice. I saw said scene, and I must say I dug. This lad's going to have his clothes ripped off by women at every opportunity -- seemingly not too hard a task, ladies, given his visible disdain for shirt-buttons.
Johnny Gaddaar is a very clever thriller, one that delights in having the audience two steps ahead of the characters and then confounding their expectations. The dialogue is smart and snappy, black humour underlining some one-liners, but this is a grim, almost-macabre film, with no concession made to include 'comedy,' the real laughs coming from that fantastic movie-worshipping fanboy treatment. The pacing is lugubrious except for the action scenes, and while some might find it slow, try and enjoy the chaos contained by the silences.
Trip on it, man. The treatment is as crucial -- if not more -- than the story, and very neat indeed. I pray that it brings originality to a genre we abuse constantly by mindlessly knocking off DVDs. Johnny Gaddaar is the single coolest film in a really long time, and you need to savour it.
I know this isn't officially a review, being unfortunately typed up a week after the film's release, but a lot of friends have already posed the what-if question to me regarding a star rating. Sigh. Hard, but it's come so tantalisingly close to a four-star rating in my book that I'll have to go ahead and say 4 instead of 3.5.
A gang of five criminals in Mumbai - Seshadri (Dharmendra), Prakash (Vinay Pathak), Shardul (Zakir Hussain), Shiva (Dayanand Shetty), and Vikram (Neil Nitin Mukesh) - are approached to do a deal with a corrupt police officer in Bangalore. The take? Contraband worth a cool 5 crore (50 million) rupees, with only Rs. 2.5 crore in cash required to pay for it. The gang make a plan to get the deal done, and rejoice that this could set them up for life.
Vikram, however, has other problems. He is having an affair with Shardul's wife Mini (Rimi Sen), and wants to escape with her far from him - preferably abroad. As he is looking at the amounts both before and after each member gets their share, he starts to wonder:
This film provides examples of:
- A Father to His Men: Seshadri, the veteran smuggler and head of the gang, to the point that even Shardul, the Token Evil Teammate vows to avenge his death.
- Born Lucky: Vikram, the "gaddaar". He makes multiple mistakes which reveal his actions to the members of his gang, but gets the drop on them each time through sheer luck. This is until the very end, when he is killed by the widow of one of his victims.
- Couldn't Find a Pen: Mini writes the total profit (Rs. 25,000,000) that the gang are going to make with her lipstick on Vikram's mirror. When Vikram reminds her that it will be divided equally among all the members of the gang, she offhandedly tries to wipe off the '2', only managing to smudge it a bit. Vikram looking at the image seems to entice him to stealing the whole take.
- Heads or Tails?: Subverted. Vikram tosses a coin, deciding he will proceed with his plan if it comes up heads. It comes up tails on three tosses. He proceeds anyway. In light of what happens, serves as either Screw Destiny or as Tempting Fate.
- Karmic Twist Ending: Vikram, after having killed every other member of the gang, goes back to Prakash's house to retrieve the money, wearing Shardul's jacket to protect him from the rain. As he is about to get it, he is shot, and the killer is revealed to be Varsha, who mistook him for Shardul (because of the jacket) and believed she was avenging her husband...because Vikram convinced her that Shardul killed him. Ironically, she did in fact avenge him by killing his real killer.
- Line-of-Sight Name: When Vikram has to register at a hotel, he enters his name as Johnny, seeing "Johnny Mera Naam" playing on the counter television. When the clerk asks for a last name, he says "Ji?" (I beg your pardon), which the clerk mistakes for "G" and enters as an initial. Counts as a sort of Title Drop.
- The Lost Lenore: Seshadri's wife. He seems to play a recording of her singing often, and it's the last thing he hears as he dies.
- MacGuffin: We never find out what contraband the gang was pooling money to buy, only that their code for it is "French furniture". The plot is driven by the theft of the pooled money.
- Match Cut: As Vikram turns his back to the camera to have sex with Mini, the camera cuts to another naked back, on which Inspector Kalyan is extinguishing his cigarette to interrogate a mook where the "furniture" is.
- Shout-Out: Several:
- The film is an acknowledged homage to the films of Chetan Anand and the novels of James Hadley Chase. Vikram is seen reading Chase and comes up with the name Johnny G while watching Johnny Mera Naam, directed by Chetan Anand.
- Multiple characters are seen watching Parwaana, which gives Vikram his idea. The similarity of his actions to those of the villain in Parwaana is even lampshaded by another character.
- The red credits amidst black and white footage are a shout out to Sin City.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Vikram and Mini, at least initially. Shardul is implied to abuse her often enough that she is desperate for the two to escape - Vikram suggests to wait till the deal is done, when they will have enough money to leave for Canada to escape Shardul.