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Back in June last year when I was brought in by Prashanth, I remember Thiagarajan saying that he had secured the official rights to the Hindi film Johnny Gaddaar and that his team was remaking the movie in Tamil. I have yet to watch the Neil Nitin Mukesh starter, but I did manage to binge a good few seconds of it or rather, a lot of it.
A good thriller requires a great background score, and the original had one hell of a score. I know this because it simply worked wonders for setting the scenes. There were some romantic scenes that I have to say did absolutely nothing, and Prashanth’s much-ballyhooed comeback attempt was largely absent of any warmth and instead contained just gunshots.
In the Hindi version, there is a depiction of a thrilling action sequence on a train with Vikram (Neil) stealing a huge sum of money from one of his mentor’s aides (Dharmendra). Had it not been for the rich imagery supplied in the scene, the build-up to the tension would have been non-existent. Neil’s ice-cold gaze immediately makes him a contemporary neo-noir villain. Shakti aka Johnny (Prashanth) has given his all, but he is simply not at the level of his Bollywood counterpart.
Dharmendra, here Prabhu. The scene in Johnny Gaddaar where Seshadri (Dharmendra) recalls his wife while a song plays in the background is something to look out for. You can’t help but feel for him. You wouldn’t find this beautiful scene in Tamil.
For those who haven’t seen the original Johnny is about a guy who wants to get rich and decides to steal money from his own gang. One by one each of the gang members dies and it is pretty obvious who kills them all in the end.
I might have forgotten to mention what Sanchita Shetty, who plays the heroine, does in this film. The way it is, she is portrayed to be a Bharatanatyam teacher, yet there is no sign of that. Instead, she is dressing very revealing and is shown to always want to be next to John. Oh, they are in love. That’s what ‘lovers’ do, right?
Hold on for a second. Sayaji Shinde is cast as a police officer and has the audacity to say “interesting pussy” when he sees Sanchita in Johnny’s house. Excuse me, Johnny has a cat too, okay? (No double meaning intended).
If Johnny had come out ten years ago, I assume it would’ve had some value, but it’s too late now. Tchah. I can imagine how much you hate reading a review that discusses important features of the original as well as the remake. Well, as a (re)viewer I did understand.
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