INSTEP Magzine



In the picture Jannat* *ing: Emraan Hashmi, Sonal Chauhan Javed Sheikh and Vishal Malhotra Directed by Kunal Deshmukh

Tagline: In search for heaven Mahesh Bhatt was right when he said that Jannat is not about cricket, it is a love story. And the love story remains to be the film's backbone, which is the biggest drawback in Jannat. At a glance, the film seemed intriguing enough. Cricket, betting, a Bob Woolmer connection, Javed Sheikh as a baddie and Emraan Hashmi, as the popular protagonist. Unfortunately Jannat is so much worse than one could've predicted.

Its first flaw is that it's a love story that is too unrealistic to begin with. Arjun (Emraan Hashmi) meets Zoya (Sonal Chauhan) through sheer luck. It's love at first sight. He lands in her balcony and gives her a diamond ring. When she refuses, he throws it in a bin. But instead of saying, "get out", she says, "Keep it. I'll take it later". And that is the beginning of their strange love. The love grows and so does Arjun. Betting becomes big and he becomes super-rich. Evading police, he gambles big and his sixth sense never lets him down. He wipes out all other bookies and then comes a call from the Don (Javed Sheikh) who offers Arjun a job in his gang. Arjun never murders, just bets. But Ibrahim uses the money he makes in other businesses of his such as funding terrorism, drug smuggling among other things. All this time, the gullible girlfriend is in the dark. But what happens when she finds out is the real story. The film is flawed from the start. The love affair begins on a superficial note where he buys cars and presents them to woo the girl. And one day he is in a cab, the next day a car and few days later, a massive house. You end up asking, "Does she have no brain?" Another problem is the gambling-cricket angle. The film never explores those angles fully. Cricketers take money, some of them apparently don't make enough and lose the game. Arjun has a weird sixth sense. He bets and wins. But the business of match fixing is more than sixth sense. There is a definite effort of addressing the sin of greed. However, it is not executed right. The first half is still bearable but when the second half starts, you just loose interest.

There is no mystery, no suspense. Arjun loves the girl unconditionally but there is the match-fixing angle with one foot in crime and another in love. And he keeps hopping between the two, again and again and again. Barring one song, 'Lambi Judai' which is of course a Pakistani number, all the other songs are typical Bollywood, lovey-dovey numbers and are simply boring. They keep coming and irritating one. Even Emraan Hashmi's superb acting and Javed Sheikh's suave, cool look and demeanour as the ultimate villain don't save the film.

Newcomer Sonal Chauhan is adequate and doesn't bring too much depth to her character. Or maybe that is because her role is cut half in self-sacrificial girl in love and part dumbo. Who makes so much money in such short span of time by import/export? And this is no village girl. She is an urban girl, fully aware of her surroundings. Watching the film at Cineplex, it was amusing to see that by the climax, pretty much everyone sitting was laughing. This was supposed to be a heartbreaking climax and people were laughing because we all figured out the ending. The Bob Woolmer connection is pretty offensive. In the film, one sees a Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, a man looking like Bob Woolmer… all driven from the real-life T20 World Cup that took place last year in South Africa. So Bob look-alike sees his captain going into a room and follows him and finds him with Arjun with money on the table. Is this a reflection of what actually happened because that would mean throwing mud on former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and that is just not on. The filmmakers said that it is a reflection on what might have happened. Woolmer was not shot. It was confirmed a few months later that he wasn't even murdered. He just passed away by natural causes. Three independent pathology reports confirmed this fact. Then why bring a Bob Woolmer look alike in the film? The sequence could've been just as effective without Bob connection. Oddly enough, Jannat has turned out to be a hit for Mahesh Bhatt and co. The film made 20 crores in just its opening week and is the only other film after Race that has done so well at the box office. Not only is it a waste of time but highly offensive. -- Maheen Sabeeh YUCK WHATEVER GOOD SUPER ***AWESOME