Suspense, surprise

MARQUEE

To illustrate the difference between rich, prolonged suspense and a strong but short-lived thrill, Alfred Hitchcock used the analogy of a scene where two people are conversing and there's a bomb under their table.

"If the viewer doesn't know about the bomb and it suddenly goes off," he said, "it will be momentarily surprising "" but prior to this surprise, the scene has been absolutely unremarkable. However, if the viewer knows beforehand what lies beneath the table and what time it is set to go off, every second of the conversation will be full of anticipation and dread."

Hindi cinema has traditionally defined "suspense" in less nuanced terms, with many of the best-known films in the genre investing far too much in a climactic denouement that might be frisson-inducing, but which doesn't change the fact that much of what led up to it was pedestrian "" merely a sideshow to the paisa-vasool big bang at the end.

Which is why I was pleasantly surprised (wrong word!) by Sriram Raghavan's Johnny Gaddaar, a stylish tribute to heist/caper movies from Golden-Age Hollywood and Bollywood. Pre-publicity had given the impression that this was a whodunit about a group of criminals being betrayed by one of their own.

Actually, this isn't the case: we know who the "gaddaar" is right at the beginning and the tension comes from our being constantly one step ahead of the characters.

We know things they don't, we can (mostly) see the whole jigsaw puzzle whereas each of them has a few pieces missing, and our level of involvement is maximised as we watch how their private dilemmas, suspicions, missteps and games of oneupmanship play out. We aren't merely passive spectators waiting for a big revelation to hit us in the face.

One of Raghavan's inspirations is the 1971 film Parwana, a "howdunit" "" with a climactic sequence that showed us the careful plotting of a murder "" that had the young, gawky Amitabh Bachchan in a supporting role.

But I also found it instructive that he cites Patricia Highsmith's anti-hero Tom Ripley as one of the inspirations for the amoral protagonist of Johnny Gaddaar.

Highsmith rarely bothers concealing her villain's identity "" in fact, she makes him the central character, turning him into someone the reader can fascinatedly empathise with. As fine examples of superior suspense (as opposed to facile surprise), I strongly recommend two excellent film adaptations of her work, both of which are available on DVD:

Stranger on a Train "" two men meet on a train: the upwardly mobile Guy Haines, who is trying to work his way into high society by marrying a senator's daughter but whose pesky wife is complicating things by refusing to give him a divorce; and the effete, discontented Bruno Anthony, who hates his domineering rich father.

Bruno suggests that since they each have a person they'd like to get rid of, they might "swap" murders, arranging it so that each of them has an alibi for the crime he would have a motive for.

Guy demurs, but the mentally unstable Bruno goes through with his part of the deal anyway, and then sets about blackmailing Guy. Hitchcock's filmisation of the Highsmith novel is a superb demonstration of how a book can be transferred to the screen and how suspense can be maintained despite our finding out who the murderer (or wannabe murderer) is in practically the first scene.

Plein Soleil (Purple Noon) "" This French film was the first movie version of the novel that introduced Tom Ripley, The Talented Mr Ripley. The dashingly handsome Alain Delon plays Tom here with a perfect mixture of coldness and vulnerability.

The murders and forgeries he commits aren't entirely his fault; it's just that things keep escalating horribly after he kills his one-time friend Philippe and assumes his identity.

Thanks to Delon's charismatic performance, the viewer is firmly on Tom's side for most of the film. The suspense in this case centres on whether he will get away, and how.

(jaiarjun@gmail.com)