A crime thriller drama which does not fail to entertain. tale of crime,betrayal and the judgement which is told in a simple manner without any unnecessary complications. Plot is based on team of five people who are involved in illegal businesses and how one of the acts hits back carrying danger to their own lives but not without being manipulated by one of their own and eventually how the justice is sought. the movie follows smoothly throughout and builds some nervy moments on the way. some very important scenes are shown in a very placid manner without any build up which in a way do not break seamless flow of the story and of course it does not contain any songs which don't serve any purpose and comes with a nice twist at the end. All the actors stick to their characters well.screenplay is robust and the performances and the direction are suited to it. this is one of the few watchable movies where the standard of the Bollywood movies is degrading day by day.

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.

I'll just get this out of the way right now because it's the best way to sum up "Johnny Gaddaar" in one sentence: this is the best Tarantino film ever made, with the possible exception of QT's best film "Jackie Brown". That's not to say Sriram Raghavan is necessarily influenced by Tarantino. He might have been, but it's not necessarily an obvious influence. What is clear is that like Tarantino Raghavan is a director heavily influenced by pulpy crime fiction, a director and writer whose inspirations aren't highbrow, and one who isn't afraid to wear his influences on his sleeve. "Johnny Gaddaar" could have been adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel like "Jackie Brown" was, but was inspired more by the significantly lesser but still engaging works of legendary pulp writer James Hadley Chase (who achieved immense popularity in India and Africa), who Raghavan dedicated the film to, along with "Jewel Thief" director Vijay Anand.While "Jackie Brown" is the only film of Tarantino's which I think is truly exceptional, I imagine I will enjoy Raghavan's other film as much as I did this film when I do see it. That's because Raghavan appears to be a smarter, more creative version of Tarantino, as much as that will seem like blasphemy to 14 year old Americans reading this. The references and homages are all significantly subtler than in most Tarantino films, and when included in dialogue they are worked in far more seamlessly. Moreover, Raghavan never loses sight of the story, something Tarantino frequently does, sadly. He appears to have a far greater grasp of the emotional aspects of his writing and direction as well.There's no point in attempting to describe this film's fairly complicated plot. It's a pulpy thriller plot with lots of twists and turns, and Raghavan's script is excellent, with solid dialogue (as far as I could tell from the English subtitles anyway), no major plot holes or questionable plot mechanics, and a neat, well thought-out structure. It's hardly original, and I read somewhere that Raghavan publicly acknowledges the heavy influence of one particular James Hadley Chase novel on the film as well as some other things, but it feels fresh, so it doesn't matter. The cinematography and sound mixing are very good, but Raghavan's direction is what interested me most. It definitely is 'stylish' and 'cool', but it's also restrained and again, he never loses sight of the story he's telling, which is essential when it's this sort of twisty pulp tale. Very good editing as well and a cool, understated sophistication and class about the visuals. Raghavan is a master at establishing a sense of setting and creating atmosphere. The original score and couple of original songs (which aren't intrusive musical numbers or anything) also help set the mood.There is no feeling in the world better than sleepily reading a twisty-turny pulp crime paperback on an overnight train ride. I don't think any movies have emulated that feeling better than "Jackie Brown" and "Johnny Gaddaar". They're both tremendous movies, both extremely well-crafted, smart thrillers which are proud to be pulpy crime stories, have great ensemble casts and well-developed characters as well as a great story. I liked "Johnny Gaddaar" on first viewing but it took another to make me realize just how brilliant it is.