You know the drill. The characters are often products of broken families. They all have their baggage. There's a moral conflict involving greed and ambition thrown in against a larger social issue represented by a larger-than-life villain, that the hero (the bad guy with a good heart) must wrestle with… after the death of a close friend, and finally redeem himself. With ample scope for action, there's some glam thrown in and the romance, sexed up to justify the adult rating.
The fact that this is called Jannat 2 though it has no connection with Jannat except for the leading man and director only shows that the Bhatts are not ashamed to admit that they keep making the same film again and again (with Murder 2 or Raaz 3 coming up).
Liked Murder ? Then you'll probably watch Murder 2 .
Liked Jannat ? Okay, here's more of the same thing.
The Bhatts have perfected this mass production with blatant disregard for originality or art by ripping off entire movies (like Murder 2 from The Chaser ) or key moments here in Jannat 2 (from The Departed ).
Only that the profanity here is not even remotely as cool as it was in the Scorsese film (which in itself was a tighter adaptation of the Infernal Affairs trilogy). While Hollywood buys the rights to remake, the Bhatts have never felt the need to.
But, to be fair to director Kunal Deshmukh, there's never a dull moment in this film that is more or less predictable. You know what will happen, it's the who it will happen to that is given a twist every now and then. While Emraan Hashmi seems to be growing as an actor with every film, it's Randeep Hooda here, with the Amitabh Bachchan baritone and brooding eyes, who shines as the alcoholic cop on a mission to bring down the gun mafia. He is also given the best lines to sink his teeth into and it's quite a commendable performance considering that it's a character with very little depth.
Esha Gupta who looks like a curious cross between Deepika Padukone and Lara Dutta has acting skills that would make both those actresses look like Meryl Streep. But hey! She is pretty. And Manish Chaudhary is fast becoming the Amrish Puri of the Bhatt camp, as he plays one of those ‘I-am-so-evil-I-kill-my-men-for-fun' villain with scowling eyes, going all out camp.
This is the kind of film that would have gone straight to video in Hollywood, made strictly for a niche audience of a niche film. So don't worry about missing this. Just a matter of time before they make it again as Jannat 3 .
Jannat 2
Genre: Thriller
Director: Kunal Deshmukh
Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda, Esha Gupta, Manish Chaudhary
Storyline: A small-time gun dealer trying to turn a new leaf is forced to infiltrate the illegal guns mafia
Bottomline: Randeep Hooda shines in this Bhatt template film
