Police informers and illegal arms trade – these are 2 of the most interesting topics to be captured on celluloid but our cinema has very rarely touched these issues. Jannat 2 attempts to throw light on both these aspects. Of course, it has commercial elements since it’s a hardcore entertaining film. But director Kunal Deshmukh and writer Shagufta Rafique have tried their level best to make the goings-on believable and at the same time entertaining. The characters of Emraan Hashmi and Randeep Hooda are the pillars of the film! There are flaws in the narrative but Emraan-Randeep’s terrific chemistry neatly covers it!

The story of the movie: Sonu Dilli (Emraan Hashmi) is an illegal arms dealer in Delhi. He can tell the price, make and the origin of any gun just by looking at it from a distance. He knows the trade inside out and is quite ruthless, street-smart and smooth-talking. Hence, he’s called Sonu Dilli KKC (Kutti Kameeni Cheez)! ACP Pratap Raghuvanshi (Randeep Hooda), who has a personal vendetta against the arms nexus, handpicks Sonu and blackmails him into turning a police informer. His mission would be to get to the bottom of the nexus and expose its kingpins. At the same time, Sonu falls in love with a doctor, Jhanvi (Esha Gupta) but lies to her about his profession. Realizing that becoming a police informer will help him lead an honest and worthy life with Jhanvi, he takes up the job.

As mentioned above, the camaraderie between Emraan-Randeep is the highpoint of the film. In fact, Emraan-Randeep chemistry is better than Emraan-Esha’s! The film begins on a rocking note with Sonu Dilli’s hilarious entry. The film falls at few places throughout the film for brief moments but picks up dramatically soon. Emraan-Esha’s romantic track too has its moments. The intermission comes at an apt moment and the film maintains the level of interest in the second hour too. However, there are scenes and moments where one wishes the makers could have done a better job. Although the Emraan-Randeep and Emraan-Esha were well written, it’s the Emraan-Manish Chaudhary (who plays Mangal Singh Tomar) portions that lacked meat at places. Why did Mangal Singh accept Sonu so readily in his team? Not convincing! Also Mangal’s reaction at the intermission point didn’t seem right. And not to forget, the makers maybe could have done away with the visiting card shot since it revealed the major twist of the film. Maybe it was done intentionally.

But as said before, the pros cover the cons well. Also helping here is the climax that seemed typical at first but was novel and made Jannat 2 stand out! A great job by the writer!

Emraan Hashmi has always rocked in kameena-type characters and Jannat 2 is no exception. The actor succeeds in getting the Delhi accent and streetsmart nuances right and is a treat to witness him on screen! Once upon a time, the most reputed of critics and ‘experts’ had labeled Emraan as cheap and vulgar actor with no talent. Today, he can be called as the superstar who gave two blockbusters last year (Murder 2 and The Dirty Picture). And Jannat 2 too is on its way of becoming a huge success! And that’s not all! His forthcoming films – Shanghai, Karan Johar’s next, Raaz 3, Rush, Ghanchakkar – too are expected to strike gold! It’s really heartening to see that this talented actor finally getting his due. Emi, you rock!!

In an interview, Randeep Hooda was asked the USP of Jannat 2. He gave a sly smile and answered “Chemistry between me and Emraan…and he’s not kissing me!” I second him totally! Randeep got a damn interesting character to portray and he put his soul into it and came out with flying colours. The lonely, alcoholic, lunatic protagonist has been the trademark of Bhatt films’ protagonists but Randeep’s character takes it to another level. Also, he has a very significant role to play and it won’t be wrong to say that Jannat 2 is a two-hero film! Esha Gupta makes a confident debut and has a beautiful smile! The newbie is lucky to have bagged 2 more films before her first one hit theatres – Raaz 3 and Prakash Jha’s Chakravyuh!

Manish Chaudhary does a fine job in the negative lead. He has always seen in sophisticated kind of roles and this is the first time he played a rustic character. I don’t know why but I feel Rocket Singh kind of characters suit him more than what he played here! Sumeet Nijhawan (Sarfaraz) performs well and so does Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub (Balli). An actor to watch out for! Brijendra Kala (Randeep’s sidekick) as usual gives a bravura performance. Arif Zakaria excels in a small role. Others do a nice job.

Pritam’s music is foot-tapping although not his best work. Jannatein Kahan is the best song of the lot and comes at the most appropriate moment. Tera Deedar Hua and Tu Hi Mera were the other good songs. Raju Singh’s background score was exhilarating especially the 70s tune in the beginning. Bobby Singh’s cinematography captures the bylanes and alleys of Delhi very well.

Sanay Masoom’s dialogues work well, although a section of the audience might have reservation over the blatant use of expletives in the film. But it gels well with the characters of the film. Shagufta Rafique’s story was brilliant and the manner in which the issue of police informer and arms nexus is amalgamated is noteworthy. However, one wished the screenplay was consistently engaging. Also, they only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to illegal arms trade. They could have delved deeper into it and maybe would have come up with more interesting stuff. Having said that, Shagufta has indeed done a fine job and the character sketch was outstanding! Especially Randeep and his phone booth trips! It still gives me goosebumps!

Kunal Deshmukh’s direction, as always, was decent. Except the bit about Sonu and Mangal, the entire film seemed quite convincing. Also, he rocked in the climax! Indeed a great director and hope to see his next soon!

Some of the best scenes:
1. Sonu Dilli and Pratap’s entry
2. Pratap takes Sonu on the bridge
3. Sonu meets Jhanvi in the hospita
4. Sonu meets Jhanvi in the restaurant
5. Sonu clears Jhanvi’s debts
6. The song ‘Jannatein Kahan’
7. The intermission point
8. The Meerut Highway sequence
9. The action at the dargah
10 .The last 20 minutes

On the whole, Jannat 2 is ridden with glitches but nevertheless has ample plus points, one of them being Emraan-Randeep’s rocking chemistry. The climax is fabulous and novel and will hopefully be accepted by the viewers. As expected, Jannat 2 has taken a phenomenal opening nationwide which it rightly deserves and will surely turn out to be Emraan’s third consecutive success after Murder 2 and The Dirty Picture! Go for it and experience the madness and the fun with Sonu Dilli KKC!

My rating – *** ½ out of 5!

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