What are Johnny Gaddaar & Saawaryia all about?
Johnny Gaddaar spikes my interest. It comes from the man who impressed me a lot (and I mean a LOT) with his directorial debut… “Ek Haseena Thi”… Sriram Ragahavan is back with Johnny Gaddaar…
Just found the article on IndiaFM which details what the movie is all about…
JOHNNY GADDAAR revolves around a gang of five men, the eldest [Dharmendra] over 60, the youngest [Neil] in his 20s, who face the bright prospect of making a fortune through what seems to be a simple exchange of contraband for money on a train. However, one of the gang members gets killed before he can make the exchange and the money he was holding, disappears.
What follows is a ruthless search for the thief and killer who must be a traitor amongst them, for who else could have known about the heist?
Interesting… very interesting… just need one clarification… there is this nagging feeling after reading the brief synopsis, that Johnny Gaddar could be nothing but a rehash of the Vinod Khanna 1973 starrer Gaddar, directed by Harmesh Malhotra. The story sounds very similar… In Gaddar, it was Pran who assembles a team for a heist… things go wrong, cops-shooting-one in the gang gets killed (I think), Pran is injured in the shooting and Madan Puri, one from the gang who has the money disappears or dies leaving the gang in a quandary.
So is Johnny Gaddaar a Gaddar or what? For keeping my faith in Sriram… I sincerely hope and pray that it isn’t…
Saawariya… thanks to VC’s tip… now we know more about this Sanjay Leela Bhansali project…
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Now besides it being a SLB project, it also has two newcomers… Ranbir Kapoor (son of Rishi Kapoor) and Sonam Kapoor (daughter of Anil Kapoor)… playing the lead… VC’s email tip sends us back to IndiaFM where the article speculates that Saawariya may be based on ashort story titled White Nights written by Fyodor Dostoevsky (link to White Night on Wiki, thanks to VC)
But here’s an interesting bit of info in the article…
Saawariya has been in news for long since it will launch two star kids, Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor. The film also stars Salman Khan and Rani Mukherjee. Rani plays the role of a prostitute named Gulab in the film.
Now it looks more than clear, that these “snippets” of inside info come from the team of Saawariya itself, who are launching the pre-marketing buzz… thanks… but not clear on why they chose to reveal the fact that Saawariya may be based on White Nights… or is it an actual “investigative scoop” from the guys at IndiaFM?
Here’s a short sypnosis of White Nights from the article…
In the short story, the protagonist is young 26 year old man who is a dreamer. He comes across a young lady at St. Petersburg and their story begins. The story is named White Nights as it is actually a weather phenomenon in St. Petersburg when days are as bright as night. The short story is based on four nights that the protagonists spend together.
Further the article points that the Saawariya is set in the British Raj… the times when India was under the British rule… hope SLB does good… my spidey sense is tingling… Newcomers… Love Story… British Raj… reminds me of a similar movie released more than a decade ago launching two newcomers… Sanjay Kapoor (Anil Kapoor’s brother… darn… what a coincidence) and Tabu (who actually had acted before this one in Dev Anand’s Hum Naujawan)… in a movie called “Prem” directed by Satish Kaushik.
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January 9th, 2007 at 12:36 am
newcomers …. lovers … birtish raj … reminds me of kisna :((
by the way … Johnny gaddar sounds a lot like reservoir dogs (Kaante) to me …. hopefully sri ram raghavan is not doing that !!! :-?
January 9th, 2007 at 3:01 am
KK,
Yaar my feelings exactly - couple of men, mone and a gaddar amongst them - quite like kaante/reservoir dogs…
saawariya…i dont know..but somehow ranbir kapoor doesnt look like hero material and I hope it doesnt turn out to be a “bobby”!
January 9th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
dude..the finding of saawariya being based on White Nights didnt come from IndiaFM morons…they copy pasted it from ranbirkapoor.net which found out from TOI!!! Those IndiaFM ppl are the biggest copy-pasters alive x(x( and i dont think its a period film…its a contemporary setup..tho it does have a hindu-muslim conflict with sonam, rani and salman playing muslim characters.
January 20th, 2007 at 8:10 am
hi
i i just want to ask Sriram tht thr r 2 Newcomers in the his both the moves in male neil mukesh and Ranbir Kapoor amg both of them which one he thing can go on become a super star …can neil do wats Ranbir Kapoor in this move or can Ranbir Kapoordo wats neil is doing in his film ,,,
which is more a better actor ..
February 6th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Hi everyone. This is Sriram Raghavan. I’m directing Johnny Gaddaar and i came across this article whilst google searching the movie to see if people even remotely know about it.
I was quite happy actually to read all the piece. Thanks for some very flattering words. I hope i deserve it.
And….this is to clarify that yes i have seen Harmesh Malhotra’s Gaddaar and of course Reservoir Dogs and Ringo Lam’s City on Fire and Kaante too.
Happy to state that Johnny Gaddaar is NOT even remotely based on any of the above films.
It’s a caper thriller yes…the synopsis is right….and there’s NO suspense about who Johnny Gaddaar is. As the film unfolds, the viewer will be the first to know his identity. The fun/tension/suspense is in how and when the rest of the group find out and what happens next.
In India, we often confuse Suspense with a Whoduit factor…which is quite wrong actually. Alfred Hitchcock has NOT MADE A SINGLE WHODUNIT and yet he’s acknowledged as the Master of Suspense. Suspense is about emotion….about fear….about anticipation and NOT about guessing who the killer/informer/ whoever is.
Thank you all for your comments. The movie doesnt have any BIG names etc….so i’d really request you all to watch the movie in the first weekend….in the hall of course….and all criticism is welcome. Thank you once again
February 6th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Sriram, Thanks for the clarification. Not sure if you are aware you have a “cult” following on the internet who are looking forward to watching Johnny Gaddar
February 6th, 2007 at 10:40 am
sir jeeee……..it’s been long….very long since Ek Hasina Thi….hope 2007 is a back to back treat…
I guess you are making Good Morning with John Abraham…
February 6th, 2007 at 10:40 am
Thanks Sriram for dropping by and clarifying about Johhny Gaddar. You dont have to “request” us movie fanatics to watch JG…you along with Anurag Kashyap, Imtiaz Ali, Shivam Nair, Chandan Arora, Vishal Bhradwaj…the Gen21 have a cult following…and yeah we will watch JG and beleive me we “will” review it honestly…for more dope please visit
http://www.passionforcinema.com
February 7th, 2007 at 1:39 am
hi sriram. Good to see u hanging out here :-)
had met u at the screenwriters conference last year. Had covered ur paper in detail on DT at
http://www.desitrain.com/2006/08/23/when-the-gods-of-screenwriting-met-part-1/
http://www.desitrain.com/2006/08/24/when-the-gods-of-screenwriting-met-part-2/
All the best for Johnny Gaddar. Now i know this was the film u were talking about back then
February 7th, 2007 at 3:00 am
british raj lovers:
it reminds me first Shahid ( Dilip Kumar,Chandramohan), Prem Kahani( Rajesh Khanna, Mumtaj, shashi Kapoor), 1942- a love story( Anil Kapoor, Manisha koirala)
February 10th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Hello everyone,
This is just to reply to Karthik. Yes i read your desi train coverage of my ‘talk’ on Salim Javed. That was one crazy experience. The organizers asked me to speak about SJ and since i loved the writers, i happily agreed. But i’m a bad speaker. Rather put my thoughts down on paper. Whilst speaking, i stammer and am nervous as hell.
And…also i’m not academic in my thoughts. I cant analyse and make serious profound comments on films. And….to top everything, the night before the talk i was told that Javed Saab would be present on the occassion. I seriously contemplated taking an Asiad Bus back to Mumbai and doing the vanishing act.
But somehow…..i went up there and spoke. And i genuinely love SJ’s work. So….i had lots to say and it was quite funny when the moderator Mr Shyam Benegal said my time is up.
There’s a sort of precis of what i spoke on http://www.graftii.com. For those who are interseted. It’s a good site run by ex ftii students. Also must mention here that whilst researching for the Salim Javed paper i read Desi Train’s article on the writers. And it was quite wow. It was a passionate piece and full of oddball details and thoughts.
February 10th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Nice write-up Sriram.
For everyone, here’s the link for the Salim Javed article Sriram speaks about above.
http://www.graftii.com/ezine22.aspx
February 11th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Wow !!! Thanks for the link Sriram and VC