A street smart illegal arms dealer Sonu Dilli KKC (Emraan Hashmi) falls in love with model like doctor Jhanvi Tomar (Esha Gupta). He tries to reform himself by leaving the illegal line in a bid to become a good partner but is shoved back into it, this time as a police informer by ACP Pratap Raghuvanshi (Randeep Hooda). Pratap has a personal vendetta against the entire gun smuggling nexus and wants to swipe it clean under any cost even if that means putting his informer’s life on line. How Sonu Dilli’s love life goes for a toss and whether the two manage to crack the nexus or not follows through the rest of the plot.
The gun smuggling backdrop and the detailed built up to the widespread arms swindling rackets that was given to the audience via publicity and interviews actually had the potential to turn the film into a blockbuster had it not been for the intrusion of the romantic storyline. Blame it on the weak script and poor screenplay, serial kisser Emraan Hashmi fails to infuse the soul in the romantic track. His portions with Randeep Hooda and also with Mangal Singh Tomar played by Manish Chaudhary are gripping.
Filmmaker Kunal Deshmukh falters in bringing a semblance between the stark plot and romantic mush in the film and that's where Jannat 2 majorly lags. He gives in to a lot of clichés throughout the film for example, the deadbeat love-at-first-sight syndrome, the sudden inclination of Esha Gupta towards Emraan Hashmi or even the sequence where Randeep Hooda barges into the hospital yelling "It's an emergency, it's an emergency". He doesn't even bother about continuity for Emraan Hashmi's strong Haryanvi accent in the start almost fades off by the end of the film.
Esha Gupta except for showing off her snow-white set of teeth and planting smooches here and there doesn’t offer much to the script. Moreover, even in her fleeting appearances in the film, she appears too wooden and model like stiff. One can easily pinpoint her Kingfisher calendar type postures in the film.
Randeep Hooda is the mainstay in the film. His brooding character adds the much needed grip to the film and even the sequences between Emraan and Randeep hold your attention. Manish Chaudhary seems to have become the new in-house villain as this comes as his second negative lead after Blood Money. The actor appears a misfit in the garb of a Haryanvi goon.
Music by Pritam otherwise makes for a melodious experience however, doesn’t get effectively used in the film. The dialogues are decent in parts and highly bollywoodish in others while the background score is quite impressive.
Over all, Jannat 2 isn’t half as enticing as its first part. Watch it for Randeep Hooda or if you are a big fan Emraan Hashmi.
Welcome to the world where everything goes. Or in other words, mainstream Bollywood of the ‘80s. All the cliched characters are in place. There’s the criminal with a heart-of-gold, the “ziddi aur sanki” cop with a back-story, and the Girl (enough said).
So we have Sonu Dilli KKC (Kutti Kameeni Cheez, played by Emraan) who’s an illegal-gun seller. That’s his philosophy by the way—that a gun for everybody is the solution to society’s problems. A lowlife, he tells us how he earns the money and then blows it “chamdi ke chakkar mein” (for skin, meaning prostitutes).
This kind of crass language is a mainstay in the film, and has been amplified several-fold in the name of authenticity. So you have the mother-sister abuses in almost each sentence. Women are called “laundiya, cheez or maal".
Sonu is being tracked down by Pratap (Randeep Hooda), an archetypal Bollywood cop. He’s too cool to wear a uniform, preferring shirts that are halfway open, has a tragic back-story that has propelled him to finish the illegal guns trade, is drunk on duty and, naturally, smokes like he’s popped out of a cigarette ad.
Cop wants lowlife criminal to lead him to the big guns (pun intended). The fact that now Sonu wants an honest life, since he’s in love and all, is an impetus. In yet another Bollywood cliche, he spotted his soul mate in an instant and fell in love at first sight. She’s a “doctorni” (lady doc), and he woos her with corny lines like “Haath mein zakhm tha, dil bhi zakhmi ho gaya.” And then he slashes his other hand so she can dress that up as well.
In the real world, he’d get a prescription slip to see a brave psychiatrist. In the Bhatt movies however, he gets a coy smile from the gorgeous doctor, completely out of his league. Meanwhile a song has him fantasize about the doc wearing less, revealing more.
Also in the real world, an educated independent woman would run the other way, if she saw a man giving life-threats to people, roaming around with loads of cash in a plastic bag, and wearing a T-shirt with a shiny skull. But our lady is enamoured. Sure.
Keeping his work hidden from her does not strike our hero as odd. As the audience, we’re supposed to go with his kooky definition of love, and support this highly mismatched couple.
Director Kunal Deshmukh (Jannat, Tum Mile) puts in several twists through the second half – most predictable, others lame. The main villain finally surfaces – he’s a religious sort who’s a great Devi bhakt (they always are, aren’t they). The finale fight is violent but crisply shot.
Among the positives are the background score, superb cinematography by Bobby Singh, and reasonably good music by Pritam.
Performances are note-worthy. Emraan Hashmi manages to humanize Sonu Dilli despite the characterization. Randeep Hooda is the best thing about the film. Esha Gupta is striking…if only she could act.
So there you have it. A tired story with cliched characters propped-up by an OD on machismo, some dialogue-baazi, and a gorgeous heroine does not a film make. At least not one worth watching.
Rating: Two and a half stars
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