By Hindustan Times
Direction: Kunal Deshmukh
Actors: Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda, Esha Gupta
Rating:** 1/2
Jannat 2 begins with a bang. Within the narrow gullies of Old Delhi (point to ponder: when did ‘Dilli’ become Bollywood’s main muse?), a person is holding a gun to the top of Sonu Dilli KKC, short for kutti kameeni cheez. Sonu, played by Emraan Hashmi, is a small-time hood who deals in guns. But before the person can shoot him, Sonu gives him a crash course on why the gun in his hand is unworthy and why he must buy a brand new one, from Sonu naturally. It’s a clever scene that clearly establishes Sonu Dilli as a lethal mixture of street-smarts, criminality and charm.
Sonu’s carefree life takes a success when he falls in love with a doctor, Jhanvi, played by the beautiful but banal Esha Gupta. Now he desires to become a ‘shareef, seedha, gharelu aadmi’. To perform this, he becomes a police informer for a scowling, alcoholic cop, ACP Pratap Raghuvanshi, played by Randeep Hooda. Pratap’s wife was killed in an armed robbery so now he’s on a murderous rampage to destroy the gun mafia. Apparently, Pratap still has a bullet lodged in his brain from the said robbery, which doesn’t let him sleep. So he spends a large number of time drinking and phoning home so he can hear his dead wife’s voice at the answering machine — I DO KNOW that is meant to be moving but I DISCOVERED it unintentionally hilarious.
The finest thing about Jannat 2 is Sonu’s thorny relationship with Pratap. The 2 dislike one another but they want one another and at last develop mutual respect and affection. Director Kunal Deshmukh and his writers Sanjay Masoom and Shagufta Rafique make this the centrepiece of this largely predictable film. But in doing so, they totally ignore what's presupposed to be the plot driver — the affection story. Sonu’s grand passion for Jhanvi is reduced to a couple songs and the requisite kissing scenes. In fact you furthermore mght must ask the way it is that a doctor who runs a charity hospital never figures out what her man actually does.
Logic isn’t a concern here. Deshmukh is creating an old-school Bollywood film with high drama, punchy dialogue, thunderous background music and villains who glare and maim with aplomb. Some sequences are nicely done, including a chase sequence in a dargah. Emraan Hashmi and Randeep Hooda also are extremely watchable. But there are not any surprises here and by the second one half, Jannat 2 starts to feel like an endurance test along with your head being bludgeoned by the violence and constant Hindi swear words.
After a while, I needed to ask: Why am I spending such a lot time with these unpleasant people? In case you’re wondering, no, this film’s story has no reference to the primary Jannat. It’s called Jannat 2 because, I think, the primary was a hit. To underline the connection, characters repeat the word jannat often. As they do the opposite signature phrase: kutti kamini cheez.
