thumb The movie starts out on a rainy night with a conversation between four police officers in a van, patrolling the streets. A car narrowly misses colliding into them on the road, brakes and then continues on towards a house with iron gates. A man in a jacket gets out from the car, opens the garage door and is shot from behind multiple times. The entire movie is then shown as a flashback, building up to the present shooting, a tool used numerous times in the film when the story goes back and forth between the flashback and flashbacks within the flashback. The story is about a gang of five that run a gambling club and conduct other underhand deals. The five members of the gang are Vikram [Neil Nitin Mukesh], Seshadri [Dharmendra], Shardul [Zakir Hussain], Prakash [Vinay Pathak] and Shiva [Daya Shetty]. When one of Seshadris police contacts from Bangalore, Kalyan [played by Govind Namdeo] promises him "French furniture" [code word for drugs] worth Rs. 5 crores for Rs. 2.5 crores, Seshadri calls for all 5 members to contribute Rs. 50 Lakh each to set the deal in motion. Based on Sharduls promise of being able to sell the furniture for more than Rs. 5 crore, each member anticipates a profit of a further Rs. 50 lakh each, at least. On the sly, Vikram is in the middle of an affair with Sharduls wife Mini [Rimi Sen], who hates Shardul, and both of them are planning to run away together, preferably to Canada. After watching the Amitabh Bachchan film Parwaana and at the prospect of gaining Rs. 2.5 crores, Vikram decides to rob the money from Shiva who has been designated to travel by train, from Mumbai to Bangalore, to deliver the money and pick up the furniture from Kalyan, from Bangalore station. This is where the movie draws strongly from the influence of Vijay Anand and James Hadley Chase. On the night before everyone is supposed to drop off the money at Seshadris house and Shiva is scheduled to leave for Bangalore, Vikram calls Seshadri and tells him that he needs to travel to Goa on some work and subsequently, leaves his share of Rs. 50 Lakhs with Seshadri. Travelling by road to Pune, Vikram leaves his car parked in the railway stations parking lot after getting his car serviced at a local mechanic and from Pune airport, takes a flight to Goa. In Goa, he meets his contact to conclude a real estate deal [his contact knows and speaks with Seshadri in Vikrams presence, establishing that he is in fact, in Goa]. On the pretext of meeting a friend at the beach that afternoon, Vikram is able to stall his contact from concluding the deal on the same day, who intimates him that they should then meet at 10 the next morning. He proceeds to the airport, catches a flight to Mumbai and checks into a hotel opposite Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus. Meanwhile Prakash, supposed to drop Shiva at the station, is unable to go and Seshadri has to go instead. While waiting to board the train himself, Vikram spots Seshadri with Shiva on the platform. On the train, Vikram is able to chloroform Shiva, though it doesnt show its effects immediately, and Shiva is able to fight Vikram and in the process, take off Vikrams mask. However, once the chloroform takes effect, Shiva falls, in the process hitting his head against a wash basin, and dies. Vikram throws his body off the train, collects the suitcase containing the money and gets off at Pune station. From the parking lot, he retrieves his car and drives to Goa, reaching in time to meet his contact at the agreed 10 am. Seshadri calls Vikram at his Goa hotel that night and asks him to come back to Mumbai. Vikram arrives the next morning and while discussing Shivas death with Seshadri, accidentally lets it slip that he knows that Seshadri had gone to drop Shiva. Seshadri then confronts Vikram with a gun, who reveals all, but after a while, is able to kill Seshadri with the same gun. He is able to escape at the same time that Shardul and Prakash arrive at Seshadris house, arriving subsequently as if to show that he was never there previously. The three of them find Seshadris body and Kalyan, their contact who is to sell them furniture, comes into Mumbai to find out who killed Shiva and his good friend Seshadri. Meanwhile, Vikram hides the money in an overhead water tank in his house. In the course of his investigation, Kalyan finds out that Vikram is having an affair with Mini, and at Vikrams behest, is able to corner Shivas girlfriend, alleging that Shiva is in fact alive and she knows his whereabouts. Later however, through an airport official who recognizes a photo of Vikram, he confronts Vikram about the robbery who confesses everything. By sheer luck, Shivas girlfriend is able to kill Kalyan before he can tell Shardul and Prakash about Vikram being the thief, at the apartment where she is being held by him, and escapes, thus giving Vikram a reprieve. Prakash then gambles away Rs. 10 Lakh at the club and requests Shardul and Vikram to share the loss. After a heated argument, Shardul agrees and while he is making payment to the winner, it is determined that notes worth Rs. 80 thousand are fake. When Prakash finds out, he goes home and to the chagrin of his wife, picks up his gun claiming that Shardul has stolen money and that he will kill him. He then calls Vikram and tells him that he knows that Shardul is the thief. He tells Vikram that he had placed fake notes in his share of Rs. 50 lakh since he had run short by Rs. 8 Lakh and these notes were now surfacing in the amounts that have been paid by Shardul. What he doesnt know is that Shardul has already approached Vikram, the real source of the fake notes, and asked him as to where the notes had come from since the police were asking him for links to the fake note producers. Vikram then confesses to Prakash that he had robbed the money but didnt intend to kill anyone, and kills him, throwing his body into a lake. Prakashs wife Varsha [Ashwini Kalsekar] comes to his house looking for Prakash but Vikram convinces her that he must be at some bar, seeking to trouble her after their fight that morning. After shutting the club down due to Prakashs death, Shardul and Vikram are travelling in Vikrams car when the car malfunctions. Under the open bonnet of the car, Shardul notices a sticker from the local Pune mechanic and notes the date on the sticker, as the day before Shiva is scheduled to travel. Realising that Vikram has lied about being in Goa and is therefore the thief, he takes Vikram to his club and leaving him there under the watchful eye of his club manager, goes to Vikrams house and after a thorough search, finds the entire money in the overhead tank. He packs the money, takes it to his garage and leaves it there, telling Mini that everything was happening before his eyes but he couldnt see because he thought Vikram was a kid. Mini misunderstands this to mean that Shardul knows about her affair with Vikram and tries to reach Vikram over the phone. Vikrams phone is not with him and by the time he sees Minis missed calls at the club, Shardul arrives and tells Vikram that he knows about the robbery. He also tells Vikram that the money is in his garage. After a heated discussion, Shardul points his gun at Vikram and at the same time, Mini enters the room. While Shardul turns to look towards her, Vikram turns the gun on Shardul and shoots him in the chest. As he falls, Shardul sees Mini embrace Vikram and realises that the two are having an affair. Vikram then instructs Mini to leave through the back door of the club, from where she had entered, and to come in after 5 minutes through the front entrance and tell the club manager to take her to Vikram. Mini does so and comes back to find the room clean, with Sharduls body wrapped in a carpet behind the couch. Vikram then leaves through the back door wearing Sharduls jacket and uses Sharduls car to transport and dump Sharduls body in a sewer. He then goes to Sharduls garage to collect the hidden money, where he is shot from behind. The shooter is then revealed to be Varsha, who thinking Vikram to be Shardul because of the jacket and presumably, after seeing him come out of Sharduls car, shoots him to avenge Prakashs death, thus resulting in the death of the only surviving member of the gang.

Trivia

* When all the gang members sit together to count money using automatic counting machines, the crew had to use original currency worth INR 25 Lakhs. It was needed because the counting machine automatically detects fake notes and throws them out. * However, the automatic note counting machine did not reject the counterfeit notes supplied by Prakash, which is later revealed by Naidus sharp vision. * A character is seen watching Eyes Wide Shut, Kubricks final film. * Dharmendra recollects the movie Scarface while counting money and mentions it as well.

Cast and crew

* Vikram: Neil Mukesh * Mini:Rimi Sen * Sheshadri: Dharmendra * Shardul : Zakir Hussain * Prakash : Vinay Pathak * Varsha : Ashwini Kalsekar * Shiva: Dayanand Shetty * Kalyan: Govind Namdeo * Seshadris wife: Soniya Rakkar * Nurse: Vyjayanthi * Director of Photography: Muraleedharan C K * Editing: Pooja Ladha Surthi

Zee cine awards

= Winner * 2008: Special Award; Neil Mukesh

Iifa awards

= Winner * 2008: Fresh Face of the Year; Neil Mukesh

Star screen awards

= Nominated * 2008: Star Screen Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Male; Neil Mukesh

Stardust awards

= Nominated * 2008: Stardust Superstar of Tomorrow - Male; Neil Mukesh

Tribute and reference

In the opening credits the movie is dedicated to legendary Indian Cinema director Vijay Anand and writer James Hadley Chase. The film is a tribute to Vijay Anands influence on the Hindi noir/thriller genre. It pays tribute to him in a scene in which Anands movie Johny Mera Naam is being watched by a character. At the lobby of a hotel room, the receptionist is seen watching Vijay Anands movie Johnny Mera Naam,starring Dev Anand. It is from the scene of that movie that this one gets its title. While the story is not based on any of James Hadley Chases novels, it does follow a similar plot line. There are numerous references to James Hadley Chase within the film, the lead character himself is seen holding a copy of one of Chases books. Director Sriram Raghavan has presented the same genre in his previous venture Ek Hasina Thi also. The film also makes multiple references to Amitabh Bachchan classic Parwaana and also shows scenes of a major plot sequence of the movie. There are multiple tributes to the actor Dharmendra himself. While dying, Dharmendra plays the song " Mera Gora Rang Le Le" - his characters favourite song sung by the characters wife in the movie, which is from his movie Bandini in which played in the movie. They are from Yakeen, Aadmi Aur Insaan and Naya Zamana. The color Red is used predominantly in the movie, as a homage to Sin City. Raghavan himself had confess shooting the whole movie in Black and White.

Apsara film & television producers guild awards

= Winner * 2008: Best Performance in a negative role; Neil Mukesh