Jannat 2 – Movie Review

Starring:  Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda, Esha Gupta, Manish Chaudhuri

Story:  Shagufta Rafique

Music: Pritam

Producer: Mukesh Bhatt

Director: Kunal Deshmukh

Rating: India – ‘A’, UK:- 15

Vishesh Films have often been criticised in the past for producing rip-offs of American movies, but to give credit where it is due, in the recent past, they have created a brand new genre that hasn’t been seen, as far as I am aware, in cinema anywhere around the world – the sequel that has absolutely nothing to do with the original. Jannat 2 is another addition in this series, with the only links between

 the first movie and this one being the lead actor, the director, and the music director (and a whole load of the ‘whoa-whoa-whoa’ songs, this time being used as background music).

Emraan Hashmi plays Sonu Dilli KKC (Kutti Kameeni Cheez, a phrase the writers of this film were clearly ecstatic with, considering the amount of times it was repeated in the film).  Sonu is a smooth talking arms dealer, who has the ability to convince someone who is potentially going to shoot him to use a different gun (that Sonu, of course, should supply). At the other end of the spectrum, Pratap Raghuvanshi, played by Randeep Hooda, is a cop out to eradicate the illegal arms business. This, however, isn’t only a professional obligation – Raghuvanshi’s wife was killed by a bullet from an illegal gun.

Whilst on the run from the police, the kutti comes across a billi…………sorry, doctor called Jaanvi (newcomer Esha Gupta), and promptly falls in love with her. To make himself more suitable for her, he decides to give up the dodgy business, and live a straight forward life, a fact Raghuvanshi takes advantage of, by forcing him to become an undercover police informer. From this point on, Sonu is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Jannat 2 makes a slow start – scenes drag, Hashmi, in particular, overacts, and the film seems unsure as to whether it wants to be a comic thriller, or something more serious. But once the mandatory love story are out of the way, the film actually picks up to become fairly engaging, if nothing pathbreaking. Some parts of the film are seriously flawed though – the whole romantic track is unconvincing (why would a doctor fall in love with someone she knows very little about, and go on to marry him without knowing what he does for a living?), and with lackluster performances in this part of the film, relies on kissing scenes to move the film forward.

As mentioned, Emraan Hashmi seems to overact a little in the start, and his Dilli accent is jarring, but these soon wear off, and he becomes a fairly likeable character. Randeep Hooda gets some pretty badly written scenes (repeatedly phoning his home number to hear his dead wife’s voice on the answerphone?!), but manages to rise above this to provide a fairly convincing portrayal. Hooda’s scenes with Hashmi are the highlights of the film, and the two have a crackling chemistry (maybe this should have been called Dunno Y….Na Jaane Kyun 2 instead!?). Newcomer Esha Gupta fails to shake off her model background. Her performance adds to the failure of the romantic track. The role isn’t completely redundant (as Jacqueline Fernandez’s role in Murder 2 was), but Gupta needs to seriously brush up on her acting skills to make any sort of mark in Bollywood. Plus she looks too thick to be a doctor. Manish Chaudhuri (previously seen in Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year and Blood Money) plays the main antagonist, and is fairly good in his role. Arif Zakaria (who has previously impressed in offbeat films such as Darmiyaan) is wasted in a small role.

The music by Pritam is hummable without being particularly memorable. The story by Shagufta Rafique is nothing new, but turns out to be fairly good after a shaky start. After Tum Mile, director Kunal Deshmukh provides competent direction, without being spectacular.

All in all, Jannat 2 is worth a one-time watch. Don’t expect too much, and you won’t be disappointed.