Sonu Dilli (Emraan Hashmi) is a street boy wrapped up in arms-dealing crimes. He catches the attention of ACP Pratap (Randeep Hooda), who has a fierce passion (fueled by his own personal agenda) for bringing down the arms racket. Meanwhile, Sonu falls in love with Jaanvi (Esha Gupta), and decides he now wants to live an honest life, which is why he accepts ACP Pratap’s proposition to work undercover and take down the arms-dealing criminals.
Let’s just say, this film is titled Jannat 2 not because it’s a sequel (it has no relevance to Jannat), but just as a means of trying to cash in on the popularity of the first film. Even so, does it live up to the hype of its predecessor? Check out our pros and cons list to see whether this should figure onto your ‘must-watch’ list this weekend.
Pros:
(+)
Randeep Hooda. Phenomenal as the brooding cop – he’s fantastic and you can feel both his anguish and pure badass-ery at the same time. Also: Can you say eyecandy? Phew.
(+)
The music. Lovely soundtrack, and I still can’t understand how the simple inclusion of Emraan Hashmi in a film automatically gives it good music.
(+)
Quick-paced plot. It’s a good thing that the film moves along quickly, as you get to ignore the duller parts of the script. Also, the editing is crisp and the movie doesn’t drag on, which is always a plus.
(+)
The chemistry between Randeep and Emraan. Mahesh Bhatt said in an interview that the principle relationship in this film is between the cop and the street guy, and he couldn’t be more right. They set the screen on fire more than Emraan-Esha could ever hope to.
(+)
Emraan Hashmi. It’s not his best work, but still, he was clearly made for such films. And no, I’m not talking about the making out (of which there was a minimal amount, considering it was an Emraan movie). There’s just something about his screen presence that screams bad boy, and he uses it to his advantage yet again in this film.
Cons:
(-)
Esha Gupta‘s pout. Alright, so they said you look like Angelina Jolie – that does not mean you have to pout your way through every scene. That said, Esha wasn’t even bad in the film (just not particularly great either), but the fact that they gave her the very typical function of just being the object of the lead guy’s affection (while looking good and pouting, of course), put this firmly in the ‘Cons’ category.
(-)
Emraan Hashmi’s Haryanvi accent. Carrying this seems to be a bit of an effort for him, not to mention he’s inconsistent – the accent somehow starts getting lost as the film goes on. He’s much more believable when he’s not trying hard to play the Dilli boy.
(-)
Emraan and Esha’s chemistry. The entire motivation for Emraan’s character to go over to the good side is because he fell in love, but their relationship isn’t convincing enough. The filmmakers go down the very easy “love at first sight” route, which is understandable because they don’t want to waste too much screen time developing the love story, as it’s not the focus of the film. Still, the pair aren’t able to light the screen on fire the way you’d expect an Emraan Hashmi-starrer to.
(-)
Predictable plot. The story’s already nothing new – the guy’s a criminal until he falls in love, then he wants to switch gear and move over to the good side. But beyond that, even some plot twists/revelations that are intended to surprise can be guessed fairly easily.
Verdict:
Jannat 2 is an okay watch – grittier than its predecessor, but not as enjoyable, in my opinion. Watch if you’re an Emraan Hashmi fan, or you want to see what is possibly Randeep Hooda’s best performance.
3 STARS (out of 5)