Andhra Pradesh

An oft-repeated con game

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Promising star: Neil Nitin Mukes grand son of Mukeshmakes his debut in the film

Film: Johnny Gaddaar (Hindi)

Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Dharmendra

Director: Sriram Raghavan

Ramzan is here. That time of the year when our Bollywood bigwigs stay clear of the box office, leaving the field open for the also-rans to strut their stuff. Hoping to capitalise on the lull this week is Neil Nitin Mukesh, yet another star son. Son of Nitin Mukesh and grandson of the peerless Mukesh, he is a star son with a difference, as he proves with a performance that leaves the audiences in two minds: He is an interesting mix of vulnerability and meanness, which leave s the cinemagoers wondering if he is the hero or the villain of Sriram Raghavan’s film “Johnny Gaddaar”. That, as it turns out, is his biggest strength. You know never with this guy where do you stand with him, or is he revealing more than he is concealing.

One moment he is that innocent chap, a tenderly romantic guy. Next moment he has that ruthless streak that does not prevent him from spilling blood. All perfectly fine attributes to have in a story that is nothing but an oft-repeated con game involving five men and lots of moolah.

Raghavan, who covered himself with some credit in his debut film “Ek Hasina Thi”, however, does himself few favours. He borrows heavily from Dev Anand’s “Johnny Mera Naam”, then packs in music that even he would struggle to tap his toes to.

Where he does score is in the packaging and pace department. Here he presents five heroes, four of whom are no prisoners of image, and the fifth – the good old Dharmendra – is trying to reinvent himself. We have Zakir Hussain who has done characters role of too many shades to fall into a stereotype, we have Vinay Pathak fresh from “Bheja Fry” but still new enough to be like water: take the shape of the vessel he choose as his abode.

We have Daya Shetty too. In short, a cast that lends itself perfectly to a con game where the focus has to be on the pace, the punch in the storylines, leaving few opportunities for ego massage of big stars.

The film starts off breezily enough with Dharmendra getting his cohorts to shell out some fifty lakh rupees each, of course with the promise that it would come back in multiple folds. But money changes people as often as it changes hands. So, one guy gets greedy, and thinks of walking away with all the cash. And all others are not exactly saints.

So, who is it who would even stoop to murder for cash? That is a nice little query which holds the audience interest almost till the end. Along the way, Raghavan botches it up at a couple of places. With one characters signing himself as Johnny G in a hotel, there is a big clue for the audiences. And the extra marital bit between Neil and Rimi Sen seems as desirable as a melted ice cream. To accommodate all the love-dovey bits the pace needed for a thriller gets affected. And we get many moments when the film seems to be still, the characters ostensibly on a pause button.

However, if you choose to ignore these glitches, the film passes muster. Though just about. And young Neil’s performance tells us that he might succeed where his grandpa – yes, Mukesh had entered the industry with stars in his eyes – failed: he has good screen presence, malleable body language and a face that can lend itself to many shades of story-telling.

In these lean times, watch “Johnny Gaddaar” because life does not always offer too many choices to the famished.

ZIYA US SALAM

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