Very disappointing...

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Good concept, poorly executed.

Admirable film.

The topic used by this far India crime movie reminds me a French film noir from the early sixties that I have commented five years ago on IMDb. I speak of Jacques Deray's SYMPHONIE POUR UN MASSACRE. If you watch closely to those two features, you will notice many similarities between those movies. A bunch of hoodlums plan a big money transportation by train, where one of them will be in charge of this very dangerous task. But everything gets awry when one of them - our lead - decides to kill the money carrier and keep the loot for himself...I guess the screen writer of this Indian film has seen the Jacques Deray's film. I can't imagine he did not... But I point out that will not remove anything from this very tense and powerful Bollywood piece of work. And I am probably the only human being on earth to have noticed that. No, don't be afraid, this is not a copycat, and even if it was, I repeat, no one except me will notice it.

With the very under-rated 2008 Bollywood Neo-Noir Maharathi having given me a preview of what excellent Neo-Noir work could be done in Bollywood,I decided to search round on Google,with a small amount of hope that I would eventually run into another Bolly-Noir.To my surprise,one of the first results that I was very lucky to find,was an a essay which took a look at the modern rise of Film Noir in Bollywood, that had a completely unknown ,(to me) film as the centre for the discussion on Film/Neo-Noir in Bollywood.Checking up for more info about this intriguing Neo-Noir,I was thrilled to see almost nothing but complete praise for this exciting looking movie.After reading as much as I could about the film,I felt that it was about time for me to meet the one and only Mr Johnny Gaddaar. The plot: Barely missing from hitting a car,a police van patrol the local streets as a mysterious stranger at a near by house,shoots someone who is attempting to unlock a garage door. A few weeks earlier: Stopping a coach from allowing his on-off again girlfriend from leaving him behind,"business man" Vikram impersonates a cop to successfully grip his runaway girlfriend .Desperately trying to win her trust,Vikram is given a tough ultimatum by his girlfriend:either go with her,or carry working in a group of four other "businessmen" who run an illegal gambling operation.Thinking about the hand that he's been dealt,Vikram tries to make his girlfriend forget about the "problems,by successfully charming her to his hotel bed.Whilst Vikram keeps trying to patch things up with the girl,the other four gangster businessmen, ( Seshadri, Shardul, Shiva and Prakash) begin to plan on how they can all finally leave the "chicken feed" behind,and at last enter the big league's.Building up a series of fairly high-level congestion's,the gang eventually decide that they will each contribute a good part of their own personal savings,in order to have complete control over a huge intake of drugs,which are to be brought into the city in a few days time by a corrupt cop.As each of the "loyal" gang members start to gather up their cash,Vikram begins to consider that,instead of fully cooperating with his friends plan of climbing up the ladder,if he should instead make the drug deal a bust,and cunningly take the money and run? View on the film: From this amazing film's pastel colour opening credits,co-writer/ (along with Vinay Choudary) director Sriram Raghavan shows an astonishingly stylised,intelligent eye which gives even the most "normal" moments in the movie a real flair.Using the pre-credits scene to cleverly set the movie in a James Hadley Chase inspired Neo-Noir world,Siram smartly uses bold neon colours in the film (from Vikram tossing a coin to decide his destination,to the bright objects hanging by a characters window) to give the film a fantastic,sharply-lit gritty Noir feel,which intensifies into an abrasive mood,as the film reaches its stunning down beat end.Looking at the screenplay of the film,Raghavan and Choudary brilliantly have their web of deceit and back stabbing gradually come to the surface of the movie.As the impressively non-tangled web allows for the viewer to pick up on "hints" in the initial first section of the film,Sriram and Vinay choose the best moments to progress the films story with shocking,grim twist & turns that allow the film to end in the murky Noir rain.

Johnny Gaddaar is what we call superb entertainment. It is a damn good thriller - gripping, riveting, dark and suspensive, and it will definitely have you glued to your seat throughout. Director Sriram Raghavan, who earlier directed the excellent Ek Hasina Thi, directs this movie with great integrity and understanding of the required mood, capturing every moment of it with sheer skill. He clearly takes inspiration from James Hadley Chase novels and several classic movies from India and abroad to create a true westernised Indian pulp fiction, and this makes it the more so enjoyable and fun. The movie presents a realistic yet different cultural world that is just fun to watch, but most importantly, it has style. And this style is created not only by the terrific screenplay, but also by its clever use of its technical aspects. The slick cinematography, the impressive camera work, the great editing, and the awesome background score, all contribute to the film's suspense and unpredictability. The acting is roundly good, from Dharmendra, who delivers one of his finest works in recent years, to Vinay Pathak who rocks as always to the hot Rimi Sen, the wonderful Ashwini Khalsekar to Govind Namdeo and Zakir Hussan, everyone does well. The movie, however, clearly belongs to Neil Nitin Mukesh, who delivers a very convincing debut performance, effectively playing the many shades of his character. He can be naive, sophisticated, devious or just indifferent, but he is just the real Johnny. Johnny Gaddaar is a movie everyone would enjoy watching - a thriller which is taut, twisted, fast-paced, unpredictable, and just very entertaining.

If one can judge a book by its cover, a good book by the words of the critics, a good movie is best assessed by its rating on IMDb. True, this movie may not have attracted the tens of thousands of votes that a typical western movie may have enjoyed, the 320 or so votes still rank this spectacularly at a 8 point something. And well, the comments, the quality of the prose, has been spectacular as well. rarely have i read such pleasure, and been inspired to write one as well.This is truly an amazing movie, and though we watched this very late - almost 3 months after it's release, it was still a very refreshing experience.Mediocrity has for long been the bane of Indian cinema (or any cinema at that), and to find something that raises its head above the average, is a fantastic experience. Every word that was put in favor of this masterpiece is completely justified.The casting was superb, and every single actor (including the cat) played a superb, well rehearsed part. Rasika Joshi, particularly, in the role of Shiva's mother, was superb.Looks like our spectrum of all types of movies is getting fleshed out nicely... after Khoya Khoya Chand, Manorama 6 Feet Under, this movie, and then an out and out entertainer like Om Shanti Om. 9/10