akshay shah

Interesting pieces from PFC as always!

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This is not a professional review, just my feelings after watching Johnny Gaddar.

It was 10 am in the Sunday morning and I was talking to my cousin on phone “ chal yaar film dekhne chalet hai.” He asked” Kaunsi?” I said” Johnny Gaddar”…. “koi English film hai kya?”…. “ nahin re, hindi film hai par achchi hai aur suspense thriller hai”. He asked “who are the actors?” I replied “Dharmendra and a new hero called Niel Nitin Mukesh with Rimi sen” he laughed. But somehow I managed to convince him for the movie.

Now it was 2.45 pm in afternoon and we were at theatre. There was no poster of Johnny Gaddar. Only posters of Dhol and Dhamaal were seen. I asked for ticket” the ticket person asked “which film?” I said “Johnny Gaddar” “you are the first person who asks for Johnny Gaddar. There will be no show of JG because of lack of audience.” I requested him “let start distributing tickets I am sure people will come for tickets.”… He told if there would be min. 15 people then the show will be started.” …I waited before ticket counter, asked 2-3 people waiting outside the counter. But they were interested in Dhol. I got exaggerated and expressed my PFCan feeling to my cousin” saala logon ko film dekhna hi nahin aata! Itni acchi film chal rahi hai aur log dhol aur dhamaal 2-3 baar dekh rahe hai.” He again laughed ”dekh bhai, mein bhi tere kehne se hi aaya hoon. Arey yaar jab poster hi nahin laga hua hai to logon ko pata kaise lagega ki kaun si film hai? Shaayad Dharamji ko dekhkar kamsekam 2-3 log to aa hi sakte the”….Then fortunately one guy came who was also waiting for JG. We 4-5 people again requested ticket person to sell tickets and after so much discussion, he agreed to sell tickets. Finally 15-20 people were there for JG.

We entered in the cinema hall and one of the most thrilling experience of my life started. I was continuously watching film and people sitting around me. I calculated them there were exactly 19 people. When the titles rolled my cousin said “array yeh to purani filmo ke jaisa lag raha hai”. For first 10 minutes people were talking with each other but when the film progressed all of us were deeply involved in the movie. We were enjoying each dialogue, each twist and each turn in the movie. For each funny dialogue people were laughing. Though I felt story was predictable but it was not important. Due to sleek editing and script, none of the moments of the film was boring. Who has done was not important but how it was done was important.

Shriram Raghvan’s JG is true tribute to 70s thrillers like Johnny mera naam (name explains itself), Parwaana, Jewelthief and James Hadley chase’s novels. Music reminds of all those Vijay Anand thrillers. Thanks for the no full length songs which could slower the pace of the film. All of the characters were superbly written. All of them have their special purpose. And all the actors have played them perfectly. The other plus point of the film is that it is digestible to ordinary audience also. It entertains well and is not too heavy that only filmmaker can understand. May be there were some minor holes in the screenplay, but for a good entertaining thriller it is negligible.

As per my POV, the whole film can be described by Dhramji’s dialogue “shooruaat majboori se hi hoti hai. Majboori phir jaroorat aur jaroorat phir aadat ban jaati hai”,the dialogue describes the transformation of Vikram’s character who starts his acts in MAJBOORI and progressively becomes his needs and at the end it transforms to HABIT.

So at the end, We all 19 people deeply enjoyed the movie and after completing the film, there was little smile on each of our faces. Also we laughed at people who were coming out of Dhol and Dhamaal “poor guys, you have missed the true entertainer which is much much better than all of the current cheap stuff.”

P.S. I was expecting trailer of No Smoking because the production house of both JG and NS is same and the theatre where I have seen the film was managed by the same company ADLABS. the trailers of Saawariya and Speed were shown. Why NS’ promo was not shown?