On a plot staple check list for crime capers, Johnny Gaddaar will do a 10/10. Almost. The gang and the traitor, the flashy mobster and the straying wife, the nosey, glib talker-cop, shocker twists, highway drives, motel halts — they are all here. 

Raghavan – returning from the hugely underrated Ek hasina thi – nods here to the Vijay Anand convention. However, if you count out the inspired opening credits (where fuzzy red montages are set to a thumping 60s-ish theme) or the recurring pointers to James Hadley Chase and Hindi cinema’s thriller genre, this is also a deflection from convention.

For starters, this is murder without mystery. Johnny Gaddaar works as a clever, reverse-spool thriller. There’s Seshadri (a finely underplaying Dharmendra), his gang of crooks (Hussain and Pathak in terrific turns) and a deal gone wrong. The narrative builds on its plot twists, rarely letting itself into the men’s minds. This works just right with the unflappable protagonist Vikram (Mukesh in an assured debut), who holds key to the murders and all the madness around.

Raghavan constructs this racy plot in an earthy, everyday premise — where Ganeshas are mounted on gambler den walls and killers are tracked down during random conversation on Amitabh Bachchan movies.

This, however, is not all atmospheric groove. Johnny Gaddaar is an antithesis of the conventional thriller, that blends vintage intrigue with understated chic.

The sparse use of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s killer lounge soundtrack (check out the Saigal-ish doob jaa mere pyar mein theme that introduces Vikram), C K Muraleedharan’s shots and Pooja Ladha Surti’s cuts work fine for this taut smasher. Even with a hurried end and the stray loose end, this is a seriously engaging ride. Play on, Johnny.