Gaddaar

Gaddaar review :

One of the finest heist movies made in Bollywood; Gaddaar was produced and directed by Harmesh Malhotra who collaborated famously with Sridevi in the '80s for the super hit Nagina (1986) and couple of other duds like Sherni (1988) and Banjaran (1991). Anyway, coming back to Gaddaar, it had a unique plot for its time where all the key characters were negative or with grey shades.

Seven chors pull off a difficult heist but one of them turns traitor (or gaddaar as the title goes) and runs away with all the money. The other six try to track him down taking help from another thief who stumbles upon their secret.

Gaddaar is thematically similar to many future Bollywood hits like Kaante (2002) and Johnny Gaddar (2007). Infact, Malhotra remade the same plot as Choron Ki Baaraat in 1980.

Of the cast, Vinod Khanna was trying to change his image from villain to lead hero in those days and Gaddaar was perfect suit for him. Veterans like Pran, Anwar Hussain, Madan Puri and Ram Mohan delivered fantastic performances. The relatively younger Ranjeet left an impression as the hot headed Babu. The lusty Manmohan got his mandatory rape scene. The plot had no place for a heroine but Yogita Bali did the best she could in her short role. Padma Khanna oozed sex appeal in her cabaret number.

Gaddaar is largely forgotten today as it wasn't so successful at the box office despite having the merits. It certainly deserves a watch. Specially for those who are Quentin Tarantino fans. See it folks and you will understand why!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

Solid cast. Pran, Iftekar, Anwar Hussain, Madan Puri, Vinod Khanna, Ranjit all are good. The plot is good. Probably based on some English crime novel. Unlike a typical Hindi movie, there are no clear heroes and villains. There are shades of gray which is unusual and makes the movie worth watching. Also, every character seems to have something special in him in spite of so many of them. Snowy locations are rare in Hindi movies and are spectacular in this.

They have blatantly plagiarized the title music of For a Few Dollars and used it a lot. I am not sure if they gave credit to the original music director. But that shows lack of originality. Although the music suits the movie quite well.

The plot is not easy to guess and makes the movie interesting.

Somebody told me Tarantino was inspired from Gaddar to make Reservoir dogs. In Reservoir dogs, one of the thiefs turns a police informant but we don't know who, in Gaddar, one of the friends escapes with all money and the film is about searching him. Apart from this, there is not any similarly between these two.

It's one of those rare Bollywood films without a love story. Yes, there's a girl. But still, there is no romance and no love song. I am saying this because that's the only thing you see in 70's Hindi films.

There's one item song almost at the starting. And that did put me off. The story starts holding only after 25 minutes into the film. I don't see any logic in it, I don't need to.

I would like a see a remake of this film, although, I am totally against them. I want to see a version without it flaws, in a modern setting.

I was about 15 yo when this movie was released. Yet, even today, I would rate Gaddar next, only to Khamosh and at par with Dhund. Powerful action-packed suspense, with magnificent performances by Late Pran and Late Vinod Khanna, snow-clad locations are etched in my mind, like few other movies. A must-watch for any Indian action-movie lover.

Gaddar is one of the best crime thriller of its time.even at that time such good movies were made in India when most of the movies were masala movies.plot involves that 7 criminals successfully perform a heist. problem arises when one of them turn Gaddar (traitor)and run away with all the looted money.his other 6 accomplices traces him for 1 year and finally come to know that he is hiding in Himachal pradesh,one of the hilly state of India.The group is helped by one small time crook,Raja (played by Vinod khanna) who accidentally comes to know about the secret about heist and demand his share in the looted money in exchange for helping in tracing traitor.as the group reaches there and confront the traitor,circumstances and greed leads to bloodbath,true identity and motive of Raja is also revealed.

Not only the plot but the location of the set of this movie is interesting.most of the film is shooted in snow laden area of himachal pradesh.Background score is also very impressive.Although I am sure that the score has been copied from some old western Italian movie such as the good the bad the ugly,for a few dollars more or The Great silence.the locations also probably inspired by old western classics The great silence.anyway overall the movie is entertaining and performances by the characters is also above the top.if you are looking to see one of the top class Hindi thriller this film is a must watch along with another top Hindi thriller 'INKAAR'