Jannat Movie Review

Jannat is yet another offering from the Bhatt’s camp that boasts to be a cricket centric film. But mind you, the movie just gives you a superficial idea of match fixing and cricket betting and does not reveal the operations in detail. In simple, it just tells you something you already know.

Directed by debutant director Kunal Deshmukh and produced by Vishesh Films ‘Jannat’ stars Emraan Hashmi and marks the debut of Sonal Chauhan, the female lead of the film. Also, Vishesh Bhatt kicks starts his career as a screenplay writer with ‘Jannat’. Does the movie succeed in entertaining the audience?

First, the Story:

Jannat revolves around two characters mainly, Arjun (Emraan Hashmi) and Zoya (Sonal Chauhan). Arjun’s funda in life is to make lots and lots of money so that he can get his love, Zoya, anything she wishes for. He falls head-over-heals in love with Zoya at first site and tries hard to woo her. So from being a normal gambler who does betting on matches, he turns a bookie and subsequently promotes himself as a match-fixer. His life goes on smoothly like heaven and soon he shifts base from India to South Africa. But his professional status is not known to Zoya.

Does he continue to keep his job a secret? What will happen if Zoya finds out? Does he continue to grow or see a downfall? Watch the movie to find out.

Jannat Review:

Jannat works but doesn’t deliver what it promises to. The film is just set against the backdrop of gambling and match-fixing while the central theme of the movie is love. I expected it to divulge in detail about the intricacies on the misconduct of cricket and reveal the core of match-fixing, but it lets down.

Director Kunal Deshmukh has the talent and proves to be an excellent story-teller, a director to watch out for in future. The story is different and refreshing, but it needs a little bit of fine tuning. The focus shifts from cricket to love, gambling to affection from time to time. It doesn’t go in detail with either of its parts. And whenever it tries to get serious, the focus soon shifts to the other and this is a turn off.

Also, Jannat is slow paced throughout and therefore tends to get a little boring to sit through. The movie is entertaining in bits and pieces. The cricket part of the movie deals with some things that we already know and some new to us. The betting world is shown well in the movie and the money involved in the real world is way beyond the imagination. In this regard, the movie conveys the right message. It works fine but at times gets unrealistic. The love story of the movie is a very common one, seen-many-times kind of type. If only the movie was a paced faster that is normally required to carry a movie of this multiple genre, it would have been an interesting watch throughout. The climax too isn’t that great.

Cinematography by Manoj Soni is first-rate. He has rightly caught focus of the stunning locales of Cape Town. Sanjay Masoom’s dialogues are excellent and refreshing. Background score is top notch. Pritam delivers yet another chart busting music for Jannat. My favorite tracks are Zara Sa and Lambi Judai.

Jannat Performances:

Performance adds a feather to the cap.

Emraan Hashmi stands out with a marvelous performance. He is the heart and soul of the movie. He not just wins your heart with his charms but also his acting talent. A surprise package!

Debutant Sonal Chauhan did a good job as a new comer. She has a very good screen presence but needs to work on her acting skills.

Jawed Sheikh was excellent. Samir Kochar was very good while Vishal Malhotra was just average.

Indicine Jannat Verdict:

Overall, Jannat works but could have been better. It’s high on performance and music. It will receive mixed reactions from cricket lovers and general audience. At the box-office, at lot depends on word-of-mouth. Watch it one’s!

Rating: