"A good thriller is the only cure for the common cold, say experts!" That’s a line from the Johnny Gaddaar title song video.

I think of Johnny Gaddaar as a film noir, a caper thriller, a black comedy and a love story all rolled into one. It’s a movie in the mood of films I love like Blood Simple, True Romance, The Talented Mr Ripley, Snatch, Reservoir Dogs, Rififi, The Killing and more (Big names!!!…hope we are in the vicinity!). The big, big influences were John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle and every film by Jean Pierre Melville. And while I love a variety of pulp and crime writers, I just felt like dedicating Johnny Gaddaar to my first love…Rene Brabazon Raymond, also known as 'James Hadley Chase.' I think India and France are the only countries where Chase enjoys a solid fan base.

Do Me a Favour Drop Dead, You Find Him I’ll Fix Him, The Vulture is a Patient Bird, There’s a Hippie on the Highway. More than the sexy blondes, it was the sexier titles that grabbed my attention. Capers, gangs, losers, femme fatales, perfect crimes, traitors….that’s the world of James Hadley Chase. I wonder if anyone reads Chase now with the avid fervour we used to, whilst in high school. Which brings me to the Sixties and Seventies.

The other huge influence on me whilst shooting Johnyy Gaddaar were the Hindi films of the 1960s and 1970s. I mean films like Jewel Thief, Teesri Manzil, The Train, Zanjeer, Victoria Number 203, Chori Mera Kaam, Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Dharma, Don, The Great Gambler, Shareef Budmaash and so many more. These were the movies I grew up on. Big stars, twisted plots, terrific music, grandiose sets and gaudy villains. Some of them were great, some good and some positively cheesy for sure. But they were uninhibited and unapologetic entertainers….They were my great escapes from school and studies.

Johny Mera Naam is a classic 1970 film, far ahead of it’s time in terms of technique and attitude. It’s amongst my top ten films in the world….and the title Johnny Gaddaar, is a minor homage to the great Vijay Anand.

I had a version of this script for a while. Even before  Ek Hasina Thi. The 'lying game sequence' in Ek Hasina Thi was in this script though in a different context. When you have a very detailed script and it’s sitting for a long time, it gets a bit jaded faded. So I kind of threw all my old notes and started writing it afresh just a few weeks before the actual shooting. A lot of new things were added thanks to Vinay Choudhary and Pooja Ladha Surti who I brainstormed with. Some crazy, interesting ideas and scenes came about during these sessions. And of course, my actors contributed too. Dharamji would listen to a scene and sort of improvise it …and I got some terrific lines from him. Likewise with Vinay Pathak and Zakir Hussain. The tough thing for me was not so much the plot but the worry was really whether these characters would connect with the viewer.

A long time back, I’d narrated the basic plot line to Kundan Shah and he said something I really tattooed on my brain. He said "A plot has no life and life has no plot." The challenge really was…and I don’t even know if I’ve succeeded….How to make a plot driven story somewhat character driven. The Ashphalt Jungle does it beautifully. I mean, in that film, I care for every character though they are all racketeers. There’s a terrific line in that film….said by Louis Calhern. "After all, crime is only a left handed form of human endeavour." Thanks to Ek Hasina Thi, I didn’t find it too tough to raise money for the film. The only hitch was that a couple of producers wanted me to cast an established star in the lead. Jhamu Sughand gave me carte blanche but then due to some problem he could not complete it. Oh yes there were delays galore but somehow I was very positive about the movie. It’s a small film but we decided to shoot it in Super 35. We cut down on technician fees to the maximum…hoping that if the film works, that’ll be profitable in some manner.  Casting took a while too. I kept toying with various combinations. My dream cast for Seshadri was Dharmendra simply because I am a huge fan of his films. I did wonder whether he would agree to do a crime flick. I mean, being an MP and all that. But he liked the script…and it was pure heaven working with him. He has a sharp sense of narrative and characterization. And the best part was that he was ever willing to rehearse his scenes. He’s also a great improviser which came as a surprise. And why did I cast a newcomer like Neil? I needed someone with vulnerability and edge. I needed an actor who’s in his early 20s…and there are literally less than half a dozen. And they are all busy for the next two years. A newcomer in a sense is a 'bandh mutti.' And I thought maybe I could create a certain curiousity about the chap if he’s a new actor. Also, if the movie does work, people would trust me to work with another newcomers later. We did go thru a rigourous workshop and auditions with Neil. It was only after two months of work that I finally said yes to him. But he’s confident and hard working and daresay there is polish and honesty in his performance. Zakir Husain started his film career with a miniscule role in Ek Hasina Thi ( He’s the thug in underwear who ticks off Saif and is next killed by Urmila). Ramu loved this 'brief' role and immediately cast him in several movies. Vinay Pathak loved the script and we got along very well. Both Zakir and Vinay are theatre actors and have contributed hugely to the final film. We had no idea how it would all turn out but now I’m quite thrilled with the quirky ensemble of actors in Johnny Gaddaar. Murali (CK Muraleedharan), my FTII batchmate also had done Ek Hasina Thi so there was no second thought about the DoP. There’s an obvious comfort factor. Pooja Ladha Surti, (the writer of Ek Hasina Thi) has edited the film. It’s her first film as editor. She thinks unconventionally and has a superb sense of music. She was pregnant whilst editing the movie. And I wondered if she’ll be able to complete it. She finished her final cut and the baby was born on the next day! In fact, four of my crew/technicians had babies during the making of this movie. The fifth (the film, in case you didn't get it!) is expected on September 28, 2007...

Enough has been said about Sriram Raghavan’s influences that resulted in Johnny Gaddaar, but in fact Raghavan makes a straightforward decision and fits the film into a niche genre – not a heist or whodunit, it is a pure crime-caper thriller where the cards are out early in the film and suspense is what it all strips down to. The audience sees everything from all characters’ point of view – which means it’s always one-step ahead – always a good indication of a strong, watertight story with no loose ends – because the audience is now guessing ahead only one scene at a time, rather than trying to guess the end of the of the film.

The script is rather good because there are some wholly plausible twists and turns and it takes few cinematic liberties. There are a couple of weak moments (Vikram’s motive and quick decision to commit to the double crossing; the sticker in the engine) but overall, the film is supported by some fine moments (the interval point, Vikram’s innovative clean-up acts, the fake currency notes that bring the plot full circle.) If there is a complaint, then it is the fact that Raghavan spends too much time on getting the plot absolutely spot on, because it results in extended scenes that could possibly have been shorter: there is no doubt that the film is a tad longer than it should have been. It’s strange how logical scripts have been scarce in Hindi films, and now that we’ve finally figured it out, the standard has been raised the world over by films that show us that the best way to establish characters, take plot forward, and introduce twists, is to simply give the viewers hints and indications rather than spelling it all out; thereby making the film more breezy, yet needing all of the audience’s attention as they are slightly more difficult to follow. In the case of Johnny Gaddaar it was too late, the script commandeers all and even some nifty editing couldn’t have helped shortened length.

Performances are all very good. Of course, being Neil Mukesh’s debut he was under a close scanner, and he didn’t do too badly. A little more voice control and some buff and Hrithik Roshan and he can play twins in the next film, which is saying a lot. Vinay Pathak, Govind Namdeo, and Zakie Hussain are all very effective and efficient, but the surprise of the pack is Dharmendra’s performance, which is easily the best of all his recent comeback trail films. He deftly avoids going over the top, and keeps it compact, underplayed and under control. The point he dies is palpable and is one of the most real dramatic (ha!) death scenes portrayed in the movies in recent times.

This is due to the technical mastery the director brings to the table. Shot taking, lighting, background score, art direction all get an A+, but the show stopper is the sound design. Dwarak Warrier and Madhu Apsara’s work is a silver lining in the midst of mediocrity that Bollywood films pass of as sound (most films don’t bother going beyond a week of work for all sync and non-sync effects). But if there is one think that makes Johnny Gaddaar work is its absolutely authentic aural hypnosis. Take for example the train sequence, right from where they board the train at Mumbai station till Johnny G jumps off at Pune after committing the first murder. It’s not like we haven’t seen it all before – the use of a real location for one of the film’s most dramatic moments – ah, but have we heard anything like it? What was really impressive was that the ambient sounds at the stations changed with the time of day. Now that’s detailing.

Overall, Sriram Raghavan deserves a pat on the back for this gutsy effort. This is purely a director’s film and the fact that the writing and directing comes through as part of a cohesive vision perfectly. There is no doubt that lessons have been learnt from his first film and hopefully Raghavan can make it into the big league, and still make similar films without compromising by resorting to inserting item numbers or catering to stars' shenanigans.