Gun with the wind

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Have gun, no fun. All sorts of hand-made revolvers, pistols and tamanchas are toted by a ganglord’s chamchas. Hundreds of lethal weapons are packed into cavernous cartons, incalculable money is made out of this illegal arm-trade. So guys, welcome to the carton network.

That’s if you want your mood to turn horrendously hellish by Jannat 2, produced by the Bhatt Bros and directed by Kunal Deshmukh. Sorry but the cricket betting scams tackled by the first Jannat, four years ago, was far superior, in practically every department from storyboarding and performances to the music score and entertainment value. Part 2 leaves you feeling like a coolie balancing too much luggage on your head. It’s heavy, herky jerky and finally pointless. All that’s achieved is the glorification of a petty crook who suddenly discovers that he possesses that mental component called a conscience. Now how many times have you endured movie riffs about a baddy-turning-goody-two-shoes? Eeesh.

Anyway since a sequel to a success has become as mandatory as Emraan Hashmi’s hyper-active liplocks (he grabs three or four opportunities, this time), here we go around the moolahberry bush again. Snafu: matters keep getting darker than an eclipse. Take the zealot cop (Randeep Hooda), who ducks into phone booths so he can hear his late wife’s honey voice on the answering machine. He could have heard the voice on his cellphone, too, but he just has a kink about booths… bhoots… whatever. Mrs Cop, you see, was killed by the gun looteras, and so the hard-drinking-cursing-chain-smoking lawfella must wreak vengeance. Bidi jalaiyle, what!

In his crusade, Zealot Cop recruits the services of Mr Petty Crime (Emraan Hashmi) also famously known as Sonu the Kutti Kamini Cheezling. He becomes the Zealot’s Informer No. 1, gives up haunting brothels and… waah dil cheezling kya hai, falls madly in love with a Lucknowi chikan kurta-garbed doctor (Esha Gupta). Instant chemistry, physics and biology! In the batting of a couple of eye-lids, they wed-bed. And whoa, the Corleone of the arms racket, turns out to be her dad (Manish Choudhary, impressive), fiendish like Amrish Puri and Prem Chopra of yore. Tan tanaa, Intermission.

That’s no spoiler alert truly. Every twist and U-turn in the plot is as predictable as Corleone’s raw silk wardrobe. Next: the remainder of the 16-reeler is decicated to double-crosses-and-noughts, aborted honeymoon plans in Diga (!), and the Zealot Cop turning idli-soft towards the Kutti Kamini Cheezling informer. Cop’s human and all that jazz baat.

To be fair, two chase sequences — particularly the one set in the Durgah Hasrat Nizamuddin — are expertly ochestrated by action director Javed Eijaz. Bobby Singh’s supple cinematography is another asset, capturing the old and New Delhi locations with light-and-shade effects. On the other hand, the love pangs between the Cheezling and Chikan Doctor don’t ring true at all. As for the cops-versus-Corleone confrontations, nothing much transpires except for plenty of glaring-`n’-nostril flaring.

Expectedly, Pritam’s music score has a Sufi flavour since it’s a Bhatt production, but that’s about it. Shagufta Rafique’s screenplay could have been more modern and researched; the issue of arms-running surely needed much more detailing.

Of the cast, Emraan Hashmi is believable, not bad. Clearly, Randeep Hooda has the more empathetic part and does justice to it with a nuanced performance. However, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, as a streetside flunkey, turns out to be the proverbial scene stealer. He’s terrific. Debutante Esha Gupta is typical Bollywood heroine material — a beauty pageant winner who smiles and scowls robotically. If she wants to be considered as an actress, though, she has miles and miles to go. Just like Jannat 2 which comes nowhere close to any stairway to heaven.