{mosimage}For me it took many many 'starts' to sit through once the critically acclaimed 'Johnny Gaddar'. The initial reactions varied between the wide gamuts like 'Not so interesting...' to 'What is going on..?' to 'Wow..', when I completed the first viewing. This Sriram Raghavan's tribute to retro cinema through musical score and looks stands far from the assembly line Bollywood crowd. Sriram shows his dexterity in weaving a taut screenplay and extracting restrained simmering performances right from rank newcomer Neil Mukesh to seasoned Vinay Pathak to veteran Dharmendra. The title itself reveals that 'Johnny is the traitor', then what is left to the audience? As an audience we know who orchestrated the crime but how it unravels to the onscreen characters makes JG a gripping viewing. He educates the viewers the difference between a suspense and a whodunit thriller. Critics drew lot of reference right from Vijay Anand to RK Narayan to James Hardley Chase. I didn't grew up on Hindi / Hollywood movies so couldn't understand most of them, yet I had a blast watching it again... Don't give it a miss!!!
