Producer: Adlabs Films
Director: Sriram Raghavan
Cast: Neil Mukesh, Zakir Hussain, Dharmendra, Rimi Sen, Vinay Pathak, Ashwini Kalsekar
Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singers: Suraj Jagan, Akruti Kakkar, Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonca, Anousha Mani, Tarannum

Loy Mendonsa, Ehsaan Noorani and Shankar Mahadevan have redefined music with their numerous musical enterprises over the years. Now the trio once again springs back with their finest work of all times in ‘Johnny Gaddar’. The soundtrack of this flick is agreeably off the wall effort that clearly brings out the bands dexterity. The musical trio leaps all limits with their music that has director Sriram Raghavan smiling with contentment.

The title track ‘Johnny Gaddaar’ is a hysterically intoxicating number that altogether transports you to a different world. Suraj Jagan keeping at par with Jaideep Sahni’s meandering lines doles out this buoyant and rocking track. Akruti Kakkar who sings out the female part is simply bad. This stunning number is definite to make one nostalgic of the early seventies larger than life films. A sumptuous treat in the very opening. Fabulous indeed.

One barely gets out of the hang of the zany title track when one stumbles upon this club track that opens with saucy riff and harmonium notes. Hardkaur’s lyrics are hackneyed to the hilt but with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy behind the mike, one can bet that the results won’t be disappointing. The refrain that runs through the song is simply mind blowing. 

‘Dhoka’ is a typical Bollywood floorshow that has been pulled off greatly by Anousha Mani and Tarannum. Nilesh Mishra’s lyrics accentuate the cabaret mood while Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy scores for the background.

‘Johnny In The House’ is a zanier follow on of the title track encumbered with hard synth bass line and reverberating vocals. This club track has interesting lyrics to boast of and the composers must have had a gala time arranging for it.

‘Move your body’ (Phatt Mix) is out of the ordinary but doesn't offer too much of a drastic swing from the original.

‘Johnny Breakbeat Mera Naam’ makes a great use of lingo and outsets with a classic Johnny Mera Naam excerpt. There are dialogues interspersed within the track but the composers neatly pack it with guitar strums and synth progressions. Sudhir’s high-pitched yell of ‘Johnny’ makes this track click instantly.

‘Revenge of the 70s’ reiterates the traditional Bollywood essence when the song reaches its all time high with trumpet blows. Shaan crooning reminds one of the thriller tracks of the 70s. A simply stupendous earshot.

‘The Caper Begins’ is another retro song in the offering haunted by grimness giving us a quick peek into the evil motives of the characters. Another track that seems inspired from the 70s style.

‘Toss’ comes as an instrumental and has a western grandeur to it with its theme borrowed from the title track. This one is immensely exciting piece of melody.

‘Confidence’ pull us back to the 60s era. This track has a Turkish flavor to it and comes up as another brilliant feat from the composers.

We again travel a decade back with ‘Bhule Bisre Geet’ that smells of 50s music. The entire ambience is such that it will make you relive the bygone era without lampooning its greatness. The lyric as well as the rendition is superbly handled giving the listeners the joy of yesteryears and most astonishingly the track doesn’t appear misfit into today’s contemporary film at all.

Again we trail down to ‘Johnny gaddaar’ and ‘Move your body’, the two tracks not remixed but resung in regional languages in Tamil and Telugu. This is where ‘Move Your Body’ sizzles and sweats out the audience. Here the composers keep the entire arrangements intact except for the language. These regional tracks are far more doubled up with zest and zing. The Telugu Move shore on the language’s natural tempo while the Tamil version gets the adrenalin pumping.

As for Johnny himself, he could have done without the redubbing. The words echo deeply mystifying in Telugu while the Tamil refrain has a very glitzy hum to it. But on the whole, the track remains the same. The idea of rendering a track in different languages is a fun filled novel idea. The regional tracks definitely add to the chic and verve of the album.

The soundtrack of this flick is something like we have never heard before. The soundtrack is nothing but a lavish musical treat. If the film is as good as the songs, then we surely have a radical change in film world to look ahead to. A mind-boggling musical affair by the talented trio, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.