2.5 Stars (out of 4)
Buy the DVD at Amazon
Buy the soundtrack at Amazon
Jannat 2 is another Bollywood non-sequel sequel. Emraan Hashmi returns to play a different character than the one he played in 2008’s Jannat (“Heaven”), and neither of the storylines intersects in any way. With that in mind, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Jannat 2 is not entirely successful.
This time, Hashmi plays Sonu, a low-level gun dealer eager to leave his life of crime after he meets a beautiful doctor named Jaanvi (Esha Gupta). But Sonu is hounded by Pratap (Randeep Hooda), a detective determined to end the Delhi gun trade for good. Pratap blackmails Sonu into helping him track down Mangal Singh Tomar (Manish Chaudhary), the head of the illegal gun manufacturing business. Pratap promises to set Sonu free once Mangal is behind bars, assuming that Sonu survives.
Hashmi and Hooda are skilled at playing unsavory heroes, and they give strong performances in Jannat 2. Hashmi is effective at conveying the desperation of Sonu’s situation: twitchy and frantic while deceiving Mangal as Pratap’s informant, wide-eyed and hopeful when he’s with Jaanvi.
Hooda likewise plays Pratap as a man who’s barely holding things together, but driven by a mission. Pratap is cool and composed when he’s intimidating Sonu, but he privately turns to alcohol to dull the memories of his wife’s murder. Only his sidekick, Dadda (Brijendra Kala), really understands the amount of pain Pratap is in, and Kala imbues Dadda with much sadness and sympathy.
Sonu has a sidekick of his own, Balli (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), who admits to being the more cowardly of the duo. He becomes more desperate throughout the movie, as he sees his friend pulling away from him and toward Jaanvi. Balli practically begs Sonu not to leave him, reminding Sonu that he will always be a crook and not the kind of stand-up guy Jaanvi deserves. Ayyub’s performance is another highlight of the film.
As much attention as Jaanvi is given as the impetus for Sonu’s change, Jannat 2 is really about the relationships between men: Sonu and Balli; Pratap and Dadda; and, most importantly, Sonu and Pratap. Jaanvi isn’t in the scene most critical to Sonu’s character growth, but Pratap is.
In fact, there’s not much for Jaanvi to do except stare blankly into the distance, looking pretty. Gupta gets a pass for failing to animate Jaanvi in her debut role, especially since the character is let down by poor writing.
For a doctor, Jaanvi is not very bright. Sonu spends the whole film lying to her that he runs a textile shop, and Jaanvi is never suspicious, despite never having actually seen his shop. The day after Sonu is released from a five-month incarceration — which he is up front about — he donates a large sum of money to Jaanvi’s hospital. Doesn’t she wonder how this guy was able to come up with so much money on short notice the day after getting out of the clink? (He earned it by selling booze illegally.) Doesn’t she wonder why he never introduces her to his family or friends, even as they discuss marriage?
A further knock against Jaanvi is that she’s mean to Sonu. When he seeks treatment for a hand wound at her hospital, she squeezes his injured hand in retaliation for getting fresh with her. She’s disdainful of him until he gives he donates his ill-gotten gains to her hospital, and then a song sequence convinces her that she’s in love. There’s no reason for Sonu to fall for a jerk like Jaanvi, apart from the fact that she’s pretty.
The writing throughout is film’s weakest aspect, beyond Jaanvi’s complete unlikability. Plot twists are predictable but not logical or inevitable. There’s no sense of the flow of time. Watch Jannat 2 for the performances by the leading men and their sidekicks, but don’t expect much from the story.
Links
Argh. I hate this trend of non-sequel sequels. I was just bitching about this the other day. I mean even gratuitous sequels in Hollywood try to have some sort of flimsy-ass, transparent connection to its predecessor. (The Direct-to-Video AMERICAN PIE films or NATIONAL LAMPOON films come to mind)
I don’t think Bollywood understands the concept of ‘sequels’. LAGE RAHO MUNNABHAI was probably the first and most baffling example of this.
I wish I could remember where I read this, but someone used the term “franchise” to describe this type of movie. I guess that’s better than “sequel,” since that’s clearly wrong.
Bollywood Hungama posted an article about movie franchises just the other day:
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/features/type/view/id/4492
Even ‘franchise’ though, doesn’t really fit. I mean the same makers, casting the same actors (or not) in different roles, in a film with a different story… with only the same title, can’t be called a ‘Franchise’. By that definition every Akshay Kumar movie directed by Priyadarshan (or other Directors that use him repeatedly) can be called a ‘franchise’.
I’m just more surprised that the audience falls for it. I remember how outraged and baffled me and my inner circle were when we saw the sequel to MUNNABHAI. The 1st half was spent waiting for an in-story explanation or reference to the 1st film, which severely affected the experience of the film itself, obviously.
I agree completely, Shahid. “Franchising” assumes the audience is too dumb to connect the dots. Just include something in the trailer and on the poster to explains things: “The director and star of ‘Khatta Meetha’ reunite for the new film: ‘Another Sexist Pile of Shit’.” My favorite is still Boman Irani returning for Housefull 2 playing a character with the same name but who is obviously a different character. Idiotic.
HOUSEFULL 2 by any other name, would’ve worked just as good (story wise I mean) as what we got. But it’s like shoving down our throats that the same people behind the original success made this, therefore ‘watch it!’. I find it repulsive.
This topic might inspire a Blog Rant.
I would like to read that. š
Pingback: Bollywood Box Office: August 29-31 | Access Bollywood
Pingback: Streaming Video News: October 14, 2019 | Access Bollywood