Johnny Gaddaar

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Johnny Gaddaar
Govind Namdeo
CinematographyC. K. Muraleedharan
Edited byPooja Ladha Surti
Music byScore:
Daniel B. George
Songs:
Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy
Production
company
Distributed byAdlabs
Release date
  • 28 September 2007 (2007-09-28)
Running time
135 minutes[1]
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Budget₹7.50 crore[2]
Box office₹5.68 crore[2]

Johnny Gaddaar (transl. Johnny the Traitor) is a 2007 Indian

Govind Namdeo, Dayanand Shetty and Ashwini Kalsekar. The film received critical acclaim[3][4] and was a sleeper hit at the box-office.[5] It was remade in Malayalam as Unnam, in Telugu as Kamina and in Tamil as Johnny.[6]

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 a 1963 French film Symphonie Pour Un Massacre (The Corrupt) by Jacques Deray.[7] In 2018, Raghavan confessed to having read the novel while he was working at ISRO on public safety announcement films.[8]

Plot

The film starts out on a rainy night with a conversation between four cops in a police van, patrolling the streets of Mumbai. 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 from 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, 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 to make him unconscious. In the pretext of going to Goa for business work, he goes about his plot, driving to Pune (where he uses the name Johnny G to check into 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 enroute 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

Vijay Anand, starring Dev Anand
.

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 James Hadley Chase within the film, the lead character himself is seen holding a copy of one of Chase's books. Director Sriram Raghavan has presented the same genre in his previous venture Ek Hasina Thi as well.

The film also makes multiple references to

Parwaana
and also shows scenes of a major plot sequence of the film.

There are multiple tributes to the actor

Naya Zamana
.

There are a couple of references to Hollywood films too, for example when Shiva is introduced in the film, he's watching Stanley Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut. And Dharmendra's line "It's not the age. It's the mileage" echoes a line from the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Apart from the note-counting scene obviously inspired from Scarface, there is a reference to Titanic as well as Citizen Kane in the scene where the female lead is assembling a huge jigsaw puzzle.[citation needed]

The colour Red is used predominantly in the film, as a homage to

Black and White.[11]

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

Parwaana and James Hadley Chase as distraction, while the fact is that the film was an adaptation of the 1963 French film Symphonie Pour Un Massacre (The Corrupt) by Jacques Deray which was based on the 1962 French crime novel Les Mystifies by Alain Reynaud Fourton[7] though there are also similarities with the Stanley Kubrick's film noir 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).[12]

Cast

Soundtrack

Johnny Gaddaar
Adlabs
Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy chronology
Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love
(2007) 		Johnny Gaddaar
(2007) 		Heyy Babyy
(2007)

The film has fifteen songs and two remixes composed by

Adlabs, which is first of its kind in the history of Bollywood.[13] The album was released on 13 September 2007 at IMAX, Wadala, Mumbai. Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Dharmendra, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Sriram Raghavan were present at the launch among others.[14]

Director Sriram Raghavan approached S-E-L to score a single for the film. As they were discussing,

R.D. 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 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".[15] The album includes Tamil and Telugu
versions of the tracks "Johnny Gaddaar" and "Move Your Body".

Tracklist
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Johnny Gaddaar"
Anousha Mani, Shankar Mahadevan, Loy Mendonsa
04:10
4."Johnny in the House"Dj. Shane06:45
5."Move Your Body (Phatt Mix)"Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonsa, Hard Kaur04:28
6."Johnny Breakbeat Mera Naam"Gulraj Singh03:29
7."Revenge of the 70s"Instrumental02:25
8."The Caper Begins"Sukhwinder Singh, Shilpa Rao04:14
9."Toss"Instrumental01:11
10."Confidence"Instrumental02:05
11."Bhule Bisre Geet"Sabiha Khan, Geetanjali, Swanand Kirkire06:01
12."Johnny Gaddaar (Tamil)"Raman Mahadevan, Nandini Srikar04:59
13."Move Your Body (Tamil)"Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonsa, Hard Kaur03:33
14."Johnny Gaddaar (Telugu)"Nandini Srikar, Raman Mahadevan04:59
15."Move Your Body (Telugu)"Shankar Mahadevan, Raman Mahadevan, Nandini Srikar, Mani Mahadevan03:31
Total length:61:11

Reception

SEL, Dharmendra, Sriram Raghavan at the music launch
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Bollywood Hungama[16]
Rediff.com[17]
Planet Bollywood[18]

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

Rediff, 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.".[17] Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama 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!".[16] Atta Khan of Planet Bollywood in his 9 star review, praised the soundtrack "Every once in a while a soundtrack comes along that leaves you in awe at its sheer audacity and pizzazz. Not to mention style, inspiration, variety, innovation and all round brilliance! In this reviewer's opinion, Johnny Gaddaar is such a soundtrack. The whole package here including the instrumentals is an integral USP of the movie giving it a (dark but hip) character that many soundtracks only dream of achieving. Yet at the same time it is a great stand alone audio product too. Its unconventional approach challenges every listener to expand their listening horizon and it's an offer everyone should wholeheartedly accept."[18]

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.[19] It also was featured in the "Top 15 albums of the year" list of Planetbollywood, who remarked that "SEL have succeed in re-defining themselves and maintaining the edge over their counterparts."[20]

Awards and nominations

Filmfare Awards

Winner

Star Screen Awards

Nominated

Stardust Awards

Nominated

IIFA Awards

Winner

Star Guild Awards

Winner

Zee Cine Awards

Winner

Apsara Film and Television Producers Guild Awards

Winner

References

  1. ^ "Johnny Gaddaar". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 5 March 2022. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Johnny Gaddaar". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 13 January 2024. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  3. CNN-IBN. 29 September 2007. Archived from the original
    on 15 April 2009.
  4. Indian Express. 30 September 2007. Archived from the original
    on 22 January 2013.
  5. Indian Express. 26 May 2008. Archived from the original
    on 22 January 2013.
  6. ^ "Exclusive: Johnny Gaddaar being remade in Telugu". Rediff. 25 November 2011. Archived from the original on 9 January 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  7. ^ a b "Disappointing but True - JOHNNY GADDAAR was adapted from a French crime thriller. - by Bobby Sing". Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  8. ^ "Sriram Raghavan interview: 'Every movie is a commitment, you have to be damn sure about it'". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 7 November 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  9. ^ "'Johnny Gaddaar is the opposite of a thriller'". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 12 September 2007. Retrieved 9 August 2007.
  10. ^ Chaudhary, Swati R (August 2007). "'Johnny Gaddaar is the opposite of a thriller'". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 10 March 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  11. ^ "Today's films lack passion: Sriram Raghavan". IBN Live. 19 October 2008. Archived from the original on 9 April 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  12. ^ "Reservoir Gods". Archived from the original on 30 March 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  13. ^ "SEL with Adlabs produce Johnny Gaddaar Album". GlamSham. Archived from the original on 15 November 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
  14. ^ "Johnny Gaddar's music launch hits the right note". CNN IBN. Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
  15. ^ "The making of 'Johnny Gaddaar'". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 20 September 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  16. ^ a b Tuteja, Joginder. "Johnny Gaddaar Music Review". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 7 October 2008. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
  17. ^ a b Sen, Raja. "Shankar Ehsaan Loy's Best Album". Rediff. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
  18. ^ a b Khan, Atta. "Johnny Gaddaar Music Review". Planet Bollywood. Archived from the original on 13 August 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
  19. ^ "rediff.com: 2007's Top 10 Music Albums". Specials.rediff.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  20. ^ "The High Notes of 2007". PlanetBollywood. Archived from the original on 19 September 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  21. ^ "IIFA 2008: Award Winners". Archived from the original on 10 June 2008. Retrieved 8 August 2008.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Johnny_Gaddaar&oldid=1219996539"