ApunKaChoice : Bollywood

HOME | SCOOP!! & NEWS | BOLLYWOOD

JannatJannat : Movie Review
16th May 2008  23.50 IST
By Aparajita Ghosh  


‘Jannat’ is an engrossing, touching tale of an intuitively gifted bookie who loses his love in pursuit of his idea of heaven.

At the risk of sounding blasphemous, let me confess at the outset that I, being not a fond admirer of the game of cricket, had my apprehensions before watching the Vishesh Film’s latest presentation Jannat which was touted as a film on cricket match-fixing with ample incidents and characters from real life squeezed in the narrative to give the movie a semblance of realism.




Thankfully, I liked the film more than expected solely because it sticks to the rocky love story between the protagonist and his ladylove, while cricket and match-fixing forms just a backdrop against which this romantic tale unfolds.

Writer Vishesh Bhatt deserves a pat on his back for writing a simple story and providing it two distinct yet continually intersecting layers that eventually unite at the end with a dramatic climax. First-time director Kunal Deshmukh ought to be commended for his controlled and smooth handling of the subject and for giving the love story a tone of impending doom.

However, what mars ‘Jannat’ is the lack of sufficient development in the romantic track. After a while the story seems to go in circles. On top of it you don’t strongly relate to the emotional turmoil of the lead characters.

Arjun ( Emraan Hashmi ) comes from a middle-class family, but his dreams are big and he doesn’t mind taking the short route to riches regardless of morality, or the lack of it. He graduates from being a gambler to bookie, solely by the dint of his intuition to predict correctly. He falls in love at first sight with Zoya ( Sonal Chauhan ) and eventually goes on to win her heart, her trust, and her respect with his love and his riches. But when she comes know the source from where the riches come, she hands him over to the cops.

Arjun goes to jail and vows to reform himself – all for the sake of love. But then, one sight of jannat, one last temptation to fix a match, gets the better of his senses. And situations turn around so unexpectedly that he finds himself sinking just when he was about to come ashore.

Like all the Bhatt films, the story of ‘Jannat’ steers clear of the good-versus-bad formula. It is a subject in which both good and bad coexist inside the leading characters. There is no moral message, no sermonizing, but just the poignancy of a tragic love story.

Without doubt the man-of-the-movie trophy goes to Emraan Hashmi – the blue-eyed boy of the Bhatts – who gives a skillfully restrained performance, playing an ambitious man with shaky morals and firm equanimity in the face of success or failure.

Newcomer Sonal Chauhan catches your attention more because of her looks than acting. Samir Kochar is terrific in his role as an Indian cop in Cape Town, on the trail of bookies. Javed Sheikh brings an imposing demeanor to his character of a kingmaker don who takes Emraan under his wing.

The songs by Pritam may not be chartbusters, but they go along well with the mood of the film.

All in all, ‘Jannat’ is eminently watchable. Just don’t go expecting heaven from it.

Rating: ***



Related
Jannat
Kunal Deshmukh
Emraan Hashmi
Sonal Chauhan
Pritam





Katrina Kaif, Akshay Kumar hot up the rain
Blame it on the rain
Amitabh Bachchan to piggyback on Abhishek at 'Paa' premiere
Child as the father of the man of the moment
Zoobi Doobi song from 3 Idiots
Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor set the screen on fire (video)
Ranbir Kapoor's date with Delhi
To share the stage with Aamir
Salman Khan saves a life
Just in the nick of time
No exclusive coverage for Shilpa Shetty’s wedding
Turns down a hefty amount
Vidya Balan mouths vulgar gaaliyaan
But not without discomfort
Carmen Electra ‘sex’ tape leaked
Is it a publicity stunt?
Kamaal Khan can’t win ‘Bigg Boss 3’
The comeback man!
Nayantara gets birthday surprise from friends
Friends make Nayan’s day

AKC HOT INDEX

ECARDS > Valentines Day, New Year, Diwali, Birthday, Valentines, Love, Christmas
CardWeaver.com > Birthday, Holi

MOVIES
movies » trailers » india movie index »
making waves» Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani , Jail , Kites , Blue , My Name Is Khan , London Dreams , Dulha Mil Gaya , Right Yaaa Wrong , 3 Idiots , All The Best , Tum Mile , Radio , Chance Pe Dance , De Dana Dan , Hook Ya Crook , Kurbaan , Right Yaaa Wrong , Rann , Veer , Prince Its Showtime , Paa

celebs » wallpapers » the celeb A-Z
who's in » Freida Pinto | Anushka Sharma | Katrina Kaif | Deepika Padukone | Ranbir Kapoor | Dev Patel | Aishwarya Rai | Abhishek Bachchan | Imran Khan | Shahrukh Khan | Salman Khan | Aamir Khan | Hrithik Roshan | Akshay Kumar | Zayed Khan | Saif Ali Khan | John Abraham | Shahid Kapur | Kareena Kapoor | Vidya Balan | Priyanka Chopra | Rani Mukherjee | Mallika Sherawat | Bipasha Basu | Preity Zinta | Kajol | Neha Dhupia | Sameera Reddy | Juhi Chawla | Karisma Kapoor | Madhuri Dixit | Chitrangada Singh | Payal Rohatgi | Sneha Ullal | Mahima Chaudhary | Meghna Naidu | Rakhi Sawant | Bhumika Chawla | Lisa Ray | Dimple Kapadia | Ayesha Takia | Dia Mirza | Sushmita Sen | Amisha Patel | Esha Deol | Amrita Rao | Amrita Arora | Genelia D'Souza | Arjun Rampal | Amitabh Bachchan | Vivek Oberoi | Raima Sen | Riya Sen | Rekha | Rimi Sen | Nigar Khan | Tanushree Dutta | Yana Gupta | Shilpa Shetty | Celina Jaitley | Sonam Kapoor | Neha Oberoi | Nisha Rawal | Manjari Fadnis | Kamal Haasan | Rajnikant | Asin | Sanjay Dutt | Shahid Kapoor | Sherlyn Chopra | Farhan Akhtar | Prachi Desai | Mandira Bedi | Shahana Goswami | Konkona Sen Sharma | Kangana Ranaut | Mugdha Godse | Masumeh Makhija | Minissha Lamba | Nandana Sen | Malaika Arora | Shweta Kumar | Namitha | Kalki Koechlin | Mahi Gill | Shakeela | Lara Dutta | A R Rahman | Trisha | Shruti Haasan | Neetu Chandra | Shriya Saran | Padma Lakshmi | Emma Watson | Kelly Clarkson | Britney Spears | Anne Hathaway | Anjana Sukhani | Tila Tequila | Soha Ali Khan | Priyamani | Sonal Chauhan | Vaishali Desai | Jackky Bhagnani | Kristen Stewart | Robert Pattinson | Neil Nitin Mukesh | Shiney Ahuja | more...