Emraan Hashmi has come of age is the first thing that came to my mind after watching Jannat. It would be very difficult to imagine any other actor playing a role of the gambler, Arjun Dixit. The gambler who later becomes a bookie for cricket matches and steps up the monetary ladder and down the morality ladder when he becomes a match fixer. During a time in his life, he meets a girl called Zoya(Sonal Chauhan) whom he falls for hook, line and sinker at first sight. So much so that he breaks a window display glass just to show that he cares!
Jannat has a rather poor start. Emraan shown as a loser of a gambler, the whole love at first sight thing(overtly overdone in Bollywood), the entire Patel Bhai sequence. Completely a show spoiler. And later it goes into 5th gear from neutral! There is no stopping to the thrill, action and accelerators in the plot. Every 15 minutes something takes the story ahead and in-fact the graph of the lead character is rather a little fast for comfort. I’d call it cinematic liberty.
The story actually takes off after the scene shifts to South Africa. Emraan becomes a fixer from a bookie and there is no stop to his financial growth. Until, one day he has to choose between the love of his life and the addiction of his life.
Sonal Chauhan is strictly alright. She’s rather wooden in most parts and the romance sequences and absolutely not convincing. The audience were laughing when she tells Emraan that she loves him. Seriously someone needs to tell her that if she wants to be noticed in a frame alongside Emraan, she’s going to have to work really hard. Atop the Emraan Hashmi trademark smooches and bed scenes are almost not there. All the more why even the lechers would not look at Sonal Chauhan.
Vishal Malhotra who plays Emraan’s best friend is extremely competent. He has grown from being a model to a small role in Ishq Vishk and now a pretty big role in Jannat. Talented lad. Jawed Sheikh who plays Abu Bhai and Samir Kochhar who plays CBI Inspector Shekhar Malhotra are good in their respective roles.
From the screenplay viewpoint the story does falter a little… to quote an example, near the intermission point the ring falls to the ground and is NOT picked by anyone. Yet 6 months later, a policeman returns it to Emraan. Whoops!
Jannat scores very high on another point… music. Music is extremely hummable… a sort of a given with Mahesh Bhatt’s films. No track is outright pathetic.
Good scenes:
1) When Emraan tries betting for a match for the first time.
2) When Emraan meets Abu Bhai.
3) The intermission sequence.
4) The climax.
On the whole Jannat is excellent for a single viewing for a good performance by Emraan Hashmi, good songs and a superb climax(pretty unlike most Hindi films).