Sriram Raghavan has made some thrillers like Badlapur with Andhadhun being his best in my opinion. Johnny Gaddaar was his second film and I could sense talent within him.
Johnny Gaddaar follows Vikram, a man who decides to steal the money collected by his partners for a drug deal which leads to lies, deceit and betrayal.
Andhadhun is one of the greatest thrillers to come out of India and whilst Johnny Gaddaar isn't as good as that, Sriram Raghavan does show off his talent in crafting a thriller. What I liked about this film was the neo-noir feel of it all. There's somewhat of a classic and old school feeling to this film that worked well with the story it was presenting. The opening credits themselves pay a great homage to the neo-noir genre and there are moments throughout that clearly feel influenced by Quentin Tarantino and past Indian thrillers. What works in the film's favour the most is its unpredictability. Aside from the ending, which can be guessed as it's shown at the beginning, the film went in ways I didn't expect which kept me invested and culminated nicely by the end. Despite that, there were times where characters didn't make the best of decisions and moments where I questioned whether they could happen or not.
The acting was also well done. Neil Nitin Mukesh does a decent job. At times I thought he could've been better but considering this was his debut, he did a good job. Dharmendra was pretty good and same goes for Rimi Sen. The best out of the lot were Vinay Pathak, Ashwini Kalsekar and Zakir Hussain. These three did a fabulous job especially Hussain.
Overall, Johnny Gaddaar was a decent thriller. Improvements could've been made but I enjoyed it regardless and it was a great stepping stone for Sriram Raghavan to perfect his skill as director and writer in the thriller genre which I feel he did with his future film Andhadhun.
Johnny Gaddaar follows Vikram, a man who decides to steal the money collected by his partners for a drug deal which leads to lies, deceit and betrayal.
Andhadhun is one of the greatest thrillers to come out of India and whilst Johnny Gaddaar isn't as good as that, Sriram Raghavan does show off his talent in crafting a thriller. What I liked about this film was the neo-noir feel of it all. There's somewhat of a classic and old school feeling to this film that worked well with the story it was presenting. The opening credits themselves pay a great homage to the neo-noir genre and there are moments throughout that clearly feel influenced by Quentin Tarantino and past Indian thrillers. What works in the film's favour the most is its unpredictability. Aside from the ending, which can be guessed as it's shown at the beginning, the film went in ways I didn't expect which kept me invested and culminated nicely by the end. Despite that, there were times where characters didn't make the best of decisions and moments where I questioned whether they could happen or not.
The acting was also well done. Neil Nitin Mukesh does a decent job. At times I thought he could've been better but considering this was his debut, he did a good job. Dharmendra was pretty good and same goes for Rimi Sen. The best out of the lot were Vinay Pathak, Ashwini Kalsekar and Zakir Hussain. These three did a fabulous job especially Hussain.
Overall, Johnny Gaddaar was a decent thriller. Improvements could've been made but I enjoyed it regardless and it was a great stepping stone for Sriram Raghavan to perfect his skill as director and writer in the thriller genre which I feel he did with his future film Andhadhun.