Gun that fails to fire

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Jannat 2 is a mediocre film which exists only to make money for its producers, just like its 2008 predecessor, Jannat, did. That is why Jannat 2 follows the original’s story arc almost unthinkingly. That it does so without a hint of irony is just one reason for the listlessness that engulfs all occupants of the theatre, on and off screen.

Jannat 2 (J2) is a trite, garrulous affair and Sonu Dilli (Emraan Hashmi) is its windbag-in-chief. Sonu understands guns. He knows his tamancha from his katta and that’s what he deals in, in Delhi — he buys them apiece and sells each one for a good profit.
Sonu Dilli has an acronym from which we must deduce that he has a reputation, though there is not much evidence on screen to support it. He is called KKC — kutti, kamini cheez. Sonu also has a friend cum side-kick, Balli (Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub).
Somewhere nearby sways a dark, drunk figure on the parapet of the terrace of a tall building. ACP Pratap Raghuvanshi (Randeep Hooda), hurting from a personal tragedy, lives only to kill all those involved in the dhanda of illegal guns. Ziddi and sanki, Pratap either has a whiskey bottle in his hand or a gun. Though Sonu is a tiny operator, Pratap decides that he is the guy to lead him to the big guns. Pratap nabs Sonu, hangs him from a flyover and slashes his palm. This serves two purposes: One, Sonu is now scared of Pratap and will work for him; two, Sonu can go running to lady doctor Jhanvi Singh Tomar (Esha Gupta) to get his bleeding hand bandaged. Though Jhanvi is a leggy, sultry lass straight out of the Kingfisher calendar, Sonu falls for her and will eventually make his own, her polished manners, morals and height notwithstanding.
Sonu helps Pratap but lands up in jail and loses his shop, car, money. He rides out five months later on Balli’s cycle, dreaming of a new, clean life with Jhanvi. But Pratap blackmails him and insists that he continue working.
Sonu doesn’t want to get involved in this gun binnis anymore, mainly because he loves Jhanvi, a conscientious, independent girl who is certain to freak out if she discovers that Sonu sells guns. But Jhanvi is dumb and in love. So Sonu becomes Pratap’s reluctant partner and helps the ACP go from small to medium to large gunrunners. But Pratap’s eyes are set on the big guy who makes these guns. Cut to Mangal Singh Tomar (Manish Chouhary) who is delivering a motivational speech to his few and bemused workers before he gets down to wasting a limb or two. Though he operates out of a humble warehouse where every ready-to-use gun is an occasion for a speech, Jannat 2 demands that we consider Tomar a serious threat.
Sonu must now get close to Tomar and hand him over to Pratap. But bahut kathin hai dagar panghat ki...
Sonu marries Jhanvi and doesn’t want to put his or her jaan jokhim mein. But there is a mole amongst the cops who may give up Sonu to Tomar, and Tomar, meanwhile, has begun to smell a rat on his team. If Sonu doesn’t deliver, Pratap will tattle to Jhanvi. And if he gets found out, Tomar will kill him. We get to the end credits after saying hello to every cliché in the Book of Middling Police-Chor Thrillers.

If there is a reason to watch Jannat 2, it is, in two words, Randeep Hooda. His lean, swaying presence adds some zing to this otherwise dull film. Emraan Hashmi is briefly engaging and we have a faint connect with him, but his smugness is very annoying.
Jannat 2 is weighted down by several things: the film’s been-there-done-that plot line, the unsuitable lead couple and their frigid romance, our ennui for Hashmi’s Sonu Dilli, and the film’s over-written, banal dialogue. They are so bad and so many that my mind was often adrift: “Apne contact se contact kar ke aap ko contact kar loonga.”
Jannat 2 is set in Delhi for a reason: Its street gaalis. The film makes generous use of Delhi’s most-favoured B and C words in all their permutations and combinations. Everyone abuses, but the feeling with which Hooda wraps his B-words, both as a term of endearment and abuse, is lovely.
Hashmi doesn’t get to do much caressing and petting with Esha Gupta, and that’s just as well because she is all posture, little passion. So to compensate, we get needless lewd scenes — Hashmi peeing, bonking random lady, talking dirty about his front, behind and other sides.
Jannat 2’s real pair here is Hooda and Hashmi. They have more chemistry, more passion that Hashmi has had with a leading lady for a while. The director should have bumped off Jhanvi and let the boys show us a piece of jannat.
I can never remember Manish Chaudhury’s name and I put that down to the fact that the name is too commonplace for this rare talent. As usual, he holds his glare, talks menacingly and conveys a lot with just the twitching of his facial muscles.