Jannat 2 is an uninspired script and lacks everything Jannat had going for it, writes Raja Sen.
Webster's dictionary defines a sequel as
oh, who am I kidding. You and I both know what a sequel is, but this is elementary knowledge the bigwigs at Vishesh Films might currently require. Because there is absolutely no rationale behind naming their new movie
Jannat 2, the film having nothing whatsoever to do with the 2008 film or any of its characters. It shares a director and a leading man, yes, but by that logic next week's Hollywood release would be called
Tim&Johnny Part-11 instead of
Dark Shadows.
It's a bit of a shame because -- hold your breath, do -- I'd actually
kinda liked the first
Jannat. Sure, it was a cheesy Hollywood knockoff that tried to plug plot-holes by clumsily forcing in real-life cricketing allusions, but the film itself was competent and watchable, helped on its way by good songs, a pretty (and pretty earnest) girl and, more than anything else, a hero in surprisingly fine nick: three things Kunal Deshmukh's 'sequel' lacks entirely.
Emraan Hashmi never quite has trouble selling himself as a rascal, but here, burdened by tremendously tacky dialogue and an exaggeratedly thick North Indian accent to justify the film's Delhi backdrop, he's completely at sea. Initially appearing passable enough -- except for his painfully written out voiceover sections, of which there are many -- Hashmi himself seems to lose interest by the time the interval comes around. More than half the film creaks by with the leading man visibly
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too disinterested to care, but with material this uninspired one can't quite blame him for phoning it in.