3 hrs back: Had seen some references to various characters in Johnny Gaddaar in some blogs, and the song Move your body tonight's guitar riff was infectious. So just picked up the DVD without a lot of expectations. After all the only two familiar faces in the movie were Dharmendra and Vinay Pathak.

Now after 3 hrs: The movie is nothing shot of brilliant, in all film-making departments.

The script: Tight from the first frame till the last, never leave you to catch a breath.

The cinematography: a treat! Well, nothing out of the world, spectacular, of sort, but very very subtle, and simply rocks! Some shots create a tension/curiosity and resolves itself few moments later. Some shots like when Neil is dreaming of getting beaten by Shiva and then camera pans onto a sleeping Neil, on the same shot - more than the shot itself, I admire the thought process of the cinematographer. This whole create-tension-then-reveal aspect of the cinematography is truly in-sync with the movie. Some shots like Zakir Hussain falling on the glass center table in slowmo is very well shot. I kept rewinding many scenes like that. Truly artistic. A+

Music: The tremolo efct of the guitar in the title song is even more infectious than the Hard Kaur's guitar riff (in 'Move your body')! And btw, the harmonium and 'doob ja mere pyar mein' over a hip-hop number is absolutely a riot.

Editing: Sleek. Of course, half of my appreciation for cinamtography couldn't have been possible without a solid editing.

Acting: Everyone from main characters to the SHiva's mom character do a very good job. Zakir Hussain and Vinay Pathak are just treat to watch. As newcomers, if 2007 belonged to Deepika Padukone (of OSO) lookwise, I think the year belongs to Neil for both look and acting! Would love to watch more of him.

Direction: Bravo! I must admit, haven't seen any of Sriram's movies before, but its my homework to watch some of them! Hope to see more of his work in future. I hear the movie was not released worldwide, its sad to see many junk movies are released with much fanfare, but gems like this goes unnoticed. Fantastic direction, and to bring out such stellar performance out of newcomers as well as lesser known actors, is admirable.

Overall, the movie Rocks, and one of the best of the year (2007) alongwith Metro, Bheja Fry, Jab We Met, Chak De India, and a few others.