By committing
the murder on a train just after Lonavla station was crossed, he is able to alight at a designated station (Pune) and
return to his place of business (Goa) without
arousing suspicion - a sequence which echoes the chain of events in Parwana.The murder on train to
claim money is a reminder of Hollywood noir classic Double Indemnity (1944) in which insurance money
will be doubled while here Vikram would pocket five times his return (5 million
to 25 million rupees) .The film has a rich presence of intertextuality in its
music, dialogues and it is self-reflexive in portraying that. There are certain
other popular culture references, for instance, in a bus sequence Mini (Rimi
Sen) is reading R.K.Narayan 's Guide which was adapted to a famous film
in the 1960s and Vikram is reading The
Whiff of Money in the train
(before killing for money).There’s a fleeting glimpse of the book ‘The life
and crimes of Charles Shobhraj’s when
Inspector Kalyan is questioning the Vikram, Shardul and Prakash about the
murders of Shiva and Sheshadri.
Notable attempt
at making a nostalgic resonance of 1970s is done via the casting of yesteryear
actor Dharmendra as Seshadri (Vikram’s mentor) as the
lead partner of the club and the revelation of his own trade of smuggling
watches as he reminisces his dead wife. Added to that, Seshadri listens to an
old Hindi song ‘Mora Gora Ang’ cover sung by his wife (from Bimal Roy’s Bandini, 1963 originally sung by Lata Mangeshkar) from an audio cassette in a
boom-box. There are a couple of lines from old Hindi songs from Jugnu (1973), Yakeen (1969), Aadmi aur Insaan (1969). The songs
from Jugnu and Yakeen are ‘Rama Rama Ghazab’and ‘Bachke
Kahan Jaoge’ respectively. Dharmendra acted in Bandini, Jugnu ,Yakeen and Aadmi
aur Insaan .Besides, these
song snippets bring in the self referential angle to the film, a feature that
is identified as a film noir aesthetic . Again as a feature of indies, these
songs are not lip-synced, but are being played in the background in a
discotheque. There is a soundtrack mix referring to the nursery rhyme ‘Johnny
Johnny Yes Papa’, nailing the liar and cheat part of the rhyme.
There are three
instances where Hollywood films’ presence is observed. In the same
afore-mentioned cassette, Seshadri’s wife asks him to take her to see Dr. No (1962) in Regal theatre in Bombay. While counting
the 25 million rupees, Seshadri mentions that a similar scene was there in the
film Scarface (1983) which is a remake and
tribute to Howard Hawks’original crime-thriller Scarface (1932). Shiva (another club
partner) is watching Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes
Wide Shut (1999) when he gets
a call from Shardul (Mini’s husband). While talking of tributes, it would be an
ideal time to mention the Hitchcockian device of MacGuffin used in the film.
The MacGuffin used in Johnny
Gaddar is ‘French Furniture’
which may or may not be drugs. MacGuffin is a term for a motivating element in
astory that is used to drive the plot. It serves no further purpose. It won’t
pop up again later, it won’t explain the ending, it won’t actually do anything
except possibly distract us while we try to figure out its significance. In
some cases, like in Johnny
Gaddar, it won’t even be shown. It is a mysterious package or artefact that
everyone in the story is interested in. Seshadri is immediately willing to grab
hold of the French Furniture MacGuffin that his old friend Inspector Kalyan offers
him from Bangalore.
The suspense in the film is not who has
committed the murder. Like the best of crimes, it missed the perfection it
sought to achieve. The audience knows who the culprit is.The suspense is what
is the next scene going to be, and this makes it decidedly different from
commercial Hindi films. The use of vernacular languages in Marathi, Tamil and
Telugu brings the polyglot nature and layer of multi-culturalism. Johnny Gaddar is an original script with knowing
nods to masters of the genre with a global touch and Indian texture to it.
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