''Johnny Gaddaar'' () is a 2007 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

neo-noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...

crime thriller film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but al ...

written and directed by

Sriram Raghavan Sriram Raghavan (born 22 June 1963) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. He is primarily considered an auteur of neo-noir action thrillers. Raghavan made his directorial debut with '' Ek Hasina Thi'' (2004). H ...

, produced under the banner Adlabs. It stars

Dharmendra Dharmendra Kewal Krishan Deol (born 8 December 1935), known mononymously as Dharmendra, is an Indian actor, producer, and politician who is primarily known for his work in Hindi films. Dharmendra is widely considered one of the greatest, most h ...

, alongside

Neil Nitin Mukesh Neil Nitin Mukesh Chand Mathur (born 15 January 1982) is an Indian actor, producer and screenwriter known for his work in Hindi films. He is the son of playback singer Nitin Mukesh and grandson of singer Mukesh. He debuted as a child artist ...

, in his film debut, Zakir Hussain,

Rimi Sen Rimi Sen (born Subhamitra Sen on 21 September 1981), also known professionally as Rimi or Rimii, is a former Indian actress and producer who appears in Hindi, Telugu, and Bengali films. She made her debut as a lead actress in 2002, in the Te ...

Vinay Pathak Vinay Pathak (born 27 July 1968) is an Indian theater and film actor. He has starred in many films including '' Khosla Ka Ghosla,'' '' Bheja Fry,'' ''Island City'' and '' Johnny Gaddaar'' and had a supporting role in movies like ''Jism'', '' ...

Govind Namdeo Govind Namdev (born 3 September 1954) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. Namdev made his debut as a corrupt cop in David Dhawan's ''Shola Aur Shabnam (1992 film), Shola Aur Shabnam'' (1992). He has acted in numerous movies, often as ...

Dayanand Shetty Dayanand Chandrashekhar Shetty (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian film and television actor and model, best known for his role as Senior Inspector Daya in India's longest-running television police procedural, '' CID''. He was inducted into t ...

and

Ashwini Kalsekar Ashwini Kalsekar is an Indian actress who works predominantly in the Marathi and Hindi television and film industry. She has primarily worked with Sriram Raghavan, Rohit Shetty, Ram Gopal Varma and Ekta Kapoor. After playing a cop in the popu ...

. The film received critical acclaim and was a sleeper hit at the box-office. It was remade in Malayalam as ''

Unnam ''Unnam'' is a 2012 Indian Malayalam-language film directed by Sibi Malayil, starring Lal (actor), Lal, Asif Ali (actor), Asif Ali and Sreenivasan. The film is an official remake of the 2007 Hindi film ''Johnny Gaddaar'' which itself was an unc ...

'', in Telugu as ''

Kamina Kamina is the capital city of Haut-Lomami Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Transport Kamina is known as an important railway node; three lines of the DRC railways run from Kamina toward the north, west, and south-east. The m ...

'' and in Tamil as ''

Johnny Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John (given name), John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly ...

''. The film was later identified as an uncredited adaptation of the 1962 French novel ''Les Mystifies'' by Alain Reynaud Fourton, which was first adapted into the 1963 French film '' Symphony for a Massacre'' by

Jacques Deray Jacques Deray (born Jacques Desrayaud, 19 February 1929 – 9 August 2003) was a French film director and screenwriter. Deray is prominently known for directing many crime films, crime and thriller films. Biography Born Jacques Desrayaud in Lyon, ...

. In 2018, Raghavan confessed to having read the novel while he was working at

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister o ...

on public safety announcement films.

Plot

The film starts on a rainy night with a conversation between four cops in a police van, patrolling the streets of

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. A car narrowly misses, colliding into them on the road, brakes, and then continues on towards a house with iron gates. A man in a jacket gets out of the car, heads towards the garage, and opens the roller shutter door when he is shot from behind multiple times. At the same time, the cops in the van receive an alert on the radio that gunshots have been heard somewhere in the vicinity, and they ask the driver to head towards the location of the gunshots. The entire movie is then shown as a flashback, building up to the present shooting and scene of the cops in the van. The story is about a gang of five that run a gambling club and conduct other underhand deals. The five members are Vikram, Seshadri, Shardul, Prakash, and Shiva. When one of Seshadri's police contacts from

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

, Kalyan, informs him on the phone about "French furniture" (code word for drugs) worth Rs. 5 crore that he can offer him for Rs. 2.5 crore, Seshadri calls for all five members to contribute Rs. 50 lacs each to set the deal in motion. Based on Shardul's promise of being able to sell the furniture for more than Rs. 5 crore, each member anticipates a profit of a further Rs. 50 lacs each, at least. They agree that Shiva is to take the money to Bengaluru by train, meet Kalyan, make the exchange, and return on the same train. Vikram, who is dating Shardul's wife Mini and desperately wants to emigrate to Canada with her, plans to steal the money from Shiva in the train by using

chloroform Chloroform, or trichloromethane (often abbreviated as TCM), is an organochloride with the formula and a common solvent. It is a volatile, colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid produced on a large scale as a precursor to refrigerants and po ...

to make him unconscious. In the pretext of going to

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

for business work, he goes about his plot, driving to

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

(where he uses the name Johnny G to check into a hotel), then takes a flight to Goa. In Goa, he meets advocate Gomes, who is Seshadri's friend, to get his work done and to serve as an alibi later, if required. He makes sure the work is half done, flies back to Mumbai, and checks in to a hotel before boarding the train that Shiva takes, the train to Bengaluru en route to Pune. But plans go wrong, and Vikram ends up killing Shiva, who unmasks him before going unconscious. Now Sheshadri, Kalyan, Prakash, and Shardul, one-by-one, find out Vikram's truth and are killed by him in cold blood. Finally, Vikram is killed by Prakash's wife Varsha, who mistakes him for Shardul, who she believed was Prakash's killer.

Tribute and reference

Raghavan has described the film as a

suspense Suspense is a state of anxiety or excitement caused by mysteriousness, uncertainty, doubt, or undecidedness. In a narrative work, suspense is the audience's excited anticipation about the plot or conflict (which may be heightened by a viol ...

caper ''Capparis spinosa'', the caper bush, also called Flinders rose, is a perennial plant that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers. The taxonomic status of the species is controversial and unsettled. Species with ...

where the audience knows right from the outset what transpires and who the likely culprit is. The opening credits dedicate the film to the Indian director Vijay Anand and writer

James Hadley Chase James Hadley Chase (24 December 1906 – 6 February 1985) was an English writer. While his birth name was René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, he was well known by his various pseudonyms, including James Hadley Chase, James L. Docherty, Raymond ...

. The film is a tribute to Vijay Anand's influence on the Hindi noir/thriller genre. It pays tribute to him in a scene in which Anand's film ''

Johny Mera Naam () is a 1970 Indian Hindi-language crime action film directed by Vijay Anand. The film stars the director's brother, Dev Anand and Pran in the roles of brothers separated in childhood. Hema Malini, Jeevan, Premnath, I. S. Johar, Iftekhar, Pa ...

'' is being watched by a character. At the lobby of a hotel room, the receptionist is seen watching Vijay Anand's film '' Johnny Mera Naam'', starring

Dev Anand Dev Anand (; born Dharamdev Pishorimal Anand; 26 September 1923 – 3 December 2011) was an Indian actor, writer, director and producer known for his work in Indian cinema, Hindi cinema. He is considered as one of the greatest and most succes ...

. It is from the scene of that film that this one gets its title. When the female lead is introduced she is reading R.K. Narayan's

The Guide ''The Guide'' is a 1958 novel written in English by the Indian author R. K. Narayan. Like most of his works, the events of this novel take place in Malgudi, a fictional town in South India. The novel describes the transformation of the prota ...

, which was later made into a film directed by Vijay Anand, starring

. While the story is not based on any of James Hadley Chase's novels, it does follow a similar plot line. There are numerous references to

within the film, the lead character himself is seen holding a copy of one of Chase's books. Director

has presented the same genre in his previous venture Ek Hasina Thi as well. The film also makes multiple references to

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He is often considered one of the greatest, most accomplished and commercially successful actors in the history of Indian cinema.* * * * * With a cinemati ...

classic '' Parwaana'' and also shows scenes of a major plot sequence of the film. There are multiple tributes to the actor

himself. While dying, Dharmendra plays the song "Mera Gora Rang Le Le" – his character's favourite song sung by the character's wife (Sonia Rakkar) in the film, which is from his film Bandini in which played in the film. They are from Yakeen,

Aadmi Aur Insaan is a 1969 Hindi film produced by B. R. Chopra and directed by Yash Chopra. The film stars Dharmendra, Saira Banu, Feroz Khan, Mumtaz, Johnny Walker, Madan Puri, Ajit, Anwar, Iftekhar, Achla Sachdev, Kamini Kaushal and Nazima. The film' ...

and

Naya Zamana ''Naya Zamana'' () is a 1971 Indian Hindi-language film produced and directed by Pramod Chakrovorty. The film stars included Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Ashok Kumar, Mehmood, Pran, Lalita Pawar and Aruna Irani. The music is by S. D. Burman. It ...

. There are a couple of references to Hollywood films too, for example when Shiva is introduced in the film, he's watching

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

's last film, ''

Eyes Wide Shut ''Eyes Wide Shut'' is a 1999 erotic mystery psychological drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. It is based on the 1926 novella '' Dream Story'' () by Arthur Schnitzler, transferring the story's setting from earl ...

''. And Dharmendra's line "It's not the age. It's the mileage" echoes a line from the

Indiana Jones ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise consisting of five films and a prequel television series, along with games, comics, and tie-in novels, that depicts the adventures of Indiana Jones (character), Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, ...

film ''

Raiders of the Lost Ark ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. Set in 1936, the film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana ...

''. Apart from the note-counting scene obviously inspired from ''

Scarface Scarface may refer to: Gangster-related * Scarface, nickname for Al Capone (1899–1947), an American gangster and a businessman. * ''Scarface'' (novel), a novel by Armitage Trail, loosely based on Capone's rise to power ** ''Scarface'' (1932 ...

'', there is a reference to ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

'' as well as ''

Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American Drama (film and television), drama film directed by, produced by and starring Orson Welles and co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was Welles's List of directorial debuts, first feature film. ...

'' in the scene where the female lead is assembling a huge jigsaw puzzle. The colour Red is used predominantly in the film, as a homage to

Sin City ''Sin City'' is a series of neo-noir Comic book, comics by American comic book writer-artist Frank Miller. The first story originally appeared in ''Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special'' (April 1991), and continued in ''Dark Horse Prese ...

. Raghavan himself had confessed wanting to shoot the whole film in

Black and White Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

. But the main game is that Raghavan's inspiration for the plot and characterization was not Vijay Anand's film ''

''. Raghavan employs a

rope-a-dope The rope-a-dope is a boxing Boxing#Boxing styles, fighting technique in which one contender leans against the ropes of the boxing ring to draw non-injuring offensive punches in an effort to tire their opponent out and, while they are on the rope ...

by implying that his film as a tribute to Vijay Anand and also adding in '' Parwaana'' and

as distraction, while the fact is that the film was an adaptation of the 1963 French film ''Symphonie Pour Un Massacre'' (The Corrupt) by

which was based on the 1962 French crime novel ''Les Mystifies'' by Alain Reynaud Fourton though there are also similarities with the

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

classic '' The Killing'' - in the plot elements like the ex-conman character, the cheating wife and no-one escape climax - which are not coincidental. The only stark difference is that Kubrick's Johnny isn't the gaddar (the traitor).

Cast

as Sheshadri 'Seshu' *

as Vikram / Johnny G *

as Mini (Vikram's Girlfriend and Shardul's Wife) * Zakir Hussain as Shardul *

as Prakash 'Pakiya' *

as Varsha (Prakash's wife) *

as Shiva *

as Inspector Kalyan * Vyjayanthi as Nurse Vaijanti *

Rasika Joshi Rasika Joshi (12 September 1972 – 7 July 2011) was a Marathi cinema, Marathi and Hindi film actress. A Marathi theatre and Indian television actress, she was known for ''Maharashtrians, Maharashtrian'' roleplays in Bollywood films. Career She ...

as Shiva's mother * Shankar Sachdev as Naidu

Soundtrack

The film has fifteen songs and two remixes composed by

Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy () is an Indian musical trio consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa. They have composed music for over 50 soundtracks across five languages: Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi and English. Amongst ...

(soundtrack) and Daniel B George (score), with lyrics by

Jaideep Sahni Jaideep Sahni is an Indian screenwriter and lyricist who is known for his work in Hindi films. He has written screenplays for films such as '' Bunty Aur Babli'' (2005), ''Chak De! India'' (2007), '' Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year'' (2009) a ...

. The album was met with high critical acclaim upon its release. The soundtrack was co produced by composers Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy and Adlabs, which is first of its kind in the history of Bollywood. The album was released on 13 September 2007 at

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

Wadala Wadala (also spelled Vadala, formerly spelt Wuddala, �əɖaːɭa is a neighborhood in Mumbai. Wadala Road is a station on the Harbour Line of Mumbai's railway network. Overview Wadala has several schools and some renowned institutions ...

and

were present at the launch among others. Director Sriram Raghavan approached S-E-L to score a single for the film. As they were discussing, Ehsaan came up with a

riff A riff is a short, repeated motif or figure in the melody or accompaniment of a musical composition. Riffs are most often found in rock music, punk, heavy metal music, Latin, funk, and jazz, although classical music is also sometimes based ...

which Sriram felt fits the theme of the movie, which then turned out to be the title song "Johnny Gaddaar". Then they decided to go for another song, which was to be picturised in a club setting. Sriram wanted it to have an early '70s feel, along the lines of the famous

R.D. Burman Rahul Dev Burman (; 27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) was an Indian music director and singer, who is considered to be one of the greatest and most successful music directors of the Hindi film music industry. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Burman ...

song, "Duniya Main". Hence they jammed and came up with the second track, the rich and vibrant "Dhoka". Sriram had seen rapper

Hard Kaur Taran Kaur Dhillon (born 29 July 1979), known by her stage name Hard Kaur, is a British-Indian rapper and hip hop singer as well as playback singer and actress in the Bollywood industry. Early life Hard Kaur was born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, ...

on TV and was impressed with her. So he asked her and the trio to jam together, and they came up with the final song of the album, "Move Your Body". The album includes

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

versions of the tracks "Johnny Gaddaar" and "Move Your Body".

Reception

The album was met with high praise from critics upon release. Raja Sen of

Rediff Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...

, who awarded the soundtrack four and a half stars was ecstatic about the soundtrack, "''Johnny Gaddaar is a delightfully harebrained work showing off extreme musical maturity. This is the soundtrack that breaks all the rules, the three buddies reveling in the recklessness director Sriram Raghavan gives them. This is what Modesty Blaise would dance to, an album of lunatic retro genius.''". Joginder Tuteja of

Bollywood Hungama Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is an Indian entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provides n ...

gave the album a three-and-a-half stars, stating, "''In 'Johnny Gaddaar', don't even expect the kind of soundtrack that you hear in a conventional Bollywood film. Instead expect to get on a rhythmic ride which would hardly give you a breather throughout its 11 tracks. The music of 'Johnny Gaddaar' isn't anything that you have heard before in a mainstream Hindi film before. And this is where its strength lies!''". The soundtrack featured in the "Top 10 music Albums of the year" list by ''Rediff'', which said ''Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy get it right again with twisted, unorthodox productions like Johnny Gaddaar''.

Awards and nominations

Filmfare Awards

Winner * 2008: Filmfare Award for Best Sound Design; Leslie Fernandes

Star Screen Awards

Nominated * 2008:

Star Screen Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Male The Star Screen Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male is chosen by a distinguished panel of judges from the Indian Bollywood film industry and the winners are announced in December. Winners See also * Screen Awards * Cinema of India ...

;

Stardust Awards

Nominated * 2008: Stardust Superstar of Tomorrow - Male;

* 2008: Stardust Award for New Musical Sensation – Female –

for the song "Move Your Body" * 2008: Stardust Award for New Musical Sensation – Female –

Akriti Kakkar Akriti Kakar is an Indian singer and composer. Her songs, "Saturday Saturday" from the film '' Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania'' and "Iski Uski" from '' 2 States'' became popular. Akriti was a judge on Zee Bangla's ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa: Li'l Champs'' and ...

for the song "Johnny Gadaar"

IIFA Awards

Winner * 2008: Fresh Face of the Year;

Star Guild Awards

Winner * 2008: Best Actor in a Negative Role;

Zee Cine Awards

Winner * 2008: Special Award;

Apsara Film and Television Producers Guild Awards

Winner * 2008: Best Performance in a negative role;

References

External links

*
Interview with Srirama Raghavan
{{Sriram Raghavan 2007 films Hindi films remade in other languages 2000s Hindi-language films Indian neo-noir films Indian crime thriller films 2007 crime thriller films 2000s heist films Films about organised crime in India Indian heist films Films directed by Sriram Raghavan Films based on French novels Unofficial film adaptations