(An improved version of this article got published in Film Companion. Thanks so much Team FC!)
It is ironic that a movie with Rajinikanth in a dual role and titled ‘Johnny’ is also among the most woman-centric Tamil blockbusters. It is also precisely why Johnny, written and directed by the legendary J.Mahendran, is ageless. Coming close to the hero’s another double role hit, Billa, a gangster film released on the Republic day of 1980, Johnny, the Independence day release, was at the other end of the sensibility spectrum. Unlike in Billa and other typical commercial films, in Johnny the female characters did not exist merely to decorate the screen. Instead, they move the story, they decide the action of men.
Johnny is a conman. But what occupies his life is - music. Right at the first scene Johnny is recording folk songs of the hills. And till the end the love for music guides him. He admires and adores Archana, a lonely singer with a magical voice played extraordinarily by Sridevi. Admiration turns into love. Archana too needs Johnny. But his dark life does not allow him to take the relationship forward. Meanwhile, love blossoms in the life of a miserly barber Vidhyasagar, again played by Rajinikanth. Bhama is the girl. Her innocence melts his heart. But only till he gets to know her fully. Vidhyasagar ends up killing her. He starts hating women. Soon, he comes to Archana’s home and starts living as Johnny, who is on the run by now. Vidhyasagar intends to exploit Archana. He repeatedly hurts her. Archana cries silently, she is confused - but her love for Johnny is unchanged. It is so pure. So how does the real Johnny and Archana unite? With a highly restrained yet powerful performance by the lead actors, the story unfolds gracefully and concludes in a beautiful way as Archana and Johnny come together to live happily ever after. Only a master like Mahendran, who had total clarity on what he was doing, could have pulled off such a feat.
While normal screenplays struggle hard to achieve the desired character arc and yet languish, Johnnyeffortlessly presents it. Simply exemplary writing. Two couples. The first: a genuine man albeit with blemishes; an innocent lady. The second: a flawed lady; a man with blemishes but with a golden heart. Their lives cross. It is a writing that builds on the intelligence of the audience. The story just moves forward with minimal but impactful interactions of the characters. Every line uttered during the anchor scenes sound so simple and natural, but they bring to the fore the deepest bottoms of the characters. For instance, the place where Johnny and Archana have a chance meeting on the beach. The lines they seem to speak so casually - actually sum up their lives. Again, a master at work. There are many such gems - the scene where Archana proposes but Johnny remains helpless, the place where Vidhyasagar reveals his true identity to Archana and apologises. He concludes, ‘..I am barber by profession, murderer by accident, and now, because of you .. a human being. Thank you.. thank you very much!’ There is no melodrama, there is no build up. The lines are direct, and from the heart. And yet they elevate the art.
Johnny is also a film that tells us why Sridevi is well, Sridevi. It is easily one of her lifetime best roles. In the entire film she has only 3-4 pages of dialogues. That is all. And most of the lines are normal ones, not the usual cinematic ones like ‘Inum evalavu jenmamm eduthalum neenga thaan en kanavar..’-types. Yet, how she scores! Sridevi speaks more with her unsaid words. She expresses her emotional trauma convincingly - not by creating a ruckus but merely by - holding back tears from rolling down her cheeks. Archana is the soul of Johnny, and Sridevi gives life to Archana.
To this date Johnny stands out in Rajinikanth’s filmography. It is one of the last films to bank solely on the acting skills of Rajini. Murattu Kalai, released in the same year after Johnny, catapulted Rajinikanth into Superstardom. The hero’s trajectory changed forever. Barring a few exceptions like an Enkeyo Ketta Kural or a Sri Raghavendrar, Rajinikanth never looked back and till this date keeps rolling out revenge dramas, replete with hero intro songs, heavy duty action, style with cigarettes, punch dialogues and catchy mannerisms and so on. Basically, all the Rajini things. Collaborating for the second time with Rajinikanth after their earlier outing Mullum Malarum, this time Mahendran upped the challenge for the actor with a dual role. For his part Rajinikanth gave a memorable performance, especially as Vidhyasagar the stylish, reclusive barber who undergoes a series of tribulations. Love. Betrayal. Murder. Deceit. Realisation. Sacrifice. The character has a great range and depth. And Rajini sparkles as Vidhyasagar. In spite of his daring conman acts, the Johnny character needed to subtly display an underlying sense of vulnerability throughout the film. Rajini pulls it off too. Just sample the scene where Archana proposes to Johnny.
The film has a limited number of characters and among them Suruli Rajan gets a considerable share. With his peculiar voice and funny body language, the actor provides a solid support to Rajinikanth, especially in the initial scenes. There are a few light moments. Bhama is very central to the film. Bhama’s innocence attracts Vidhyasagar; Her betrayal turns him into a killer. Deepa, as Bhama, has deftly handled the role. It is a wise casting decision too. Not many lady actors could perform negative shades comfortably.
Just like with his many other films, Ilayaraaja compliments as well competes with the filmmaker, delivering songs and background score of a superior quality. As they say, it is tough to believe that one man could do so much. The movie has five songs, and out of them only one has a male singer. Again, stressing the woman-centric nature of the film. ‘En vaanile..’ by Jency is among the greatest melodies of Ilayaraaja and it keeps engrossing FM radio listeners even now. ‘Oru iniya manadhu..’ by Sujatha is another powerful melody that is capable of transporting us to a different world. ‘Aasaya kaathula ..’ by S.P.Shailaja still sort of haunts us. It has a Hindi avatar as ‘Stereophonic Sannata..’ from Shamitabh (2015). ‘Kaatril endhan geetham..’ by S.Janaki is a landmark climax song in the annals of Tamil films. But beyond the song, the beauty of film is that even as the long separated hero and heroine meet, soon after the song, they do not utter even a single word. Ilayaraaja’s music takes over and the film ends with the caption ‘Music The Life Giver’.
