Jannat

About the film

Jannat (transl. Heaven) is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language romantic crime drama film directed by Kunal Deshmukh and produced by Mukesh Bhatt. The film stars Emraan Hashmi and Sonal Chauhan in lead roles.

It was released on 16 May 2008 and received positive responses from critics, emerging as a commercial success. Its sequel Jannat 2, starring Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda and Esha Gupta, was released in 2012.

Plot

Arjun Dixit is a rigid, street-smart youngster with an obsession with making a quick buck. He meets a girl named Zoya who is looking at an expensive ring. He breaks the glass and retrieves the ring for which he is arrested. ACP Shekhar is amused but leaves him with a warning as he knows Arjun's father. Wanting to get rich for Zoya, Arjun steps up from playing small-time card games to becoming a bookie and strikes gold.

After impressing Zoya with his wealth, he calls his father for lunch in his new house. His father, a simple man who has lived an honest life, is happy to see Arjun's success but skeptical of his business methods. He tells Zoya that Arjun is a habitual and smooth liar. When Zoya questions Arjun, he is offended and blames his father's failure in life for his resentment toward him. Arjun is whisked off to South Africa, where he meets Don Abu Ibrahim and becomes his key match-fixer.

Rolling in money and enjoying a fast life with Zoya, everything is interrupted when the South African police take notice. Now an ACP with the CBI, Shekhar is summoned to assist in the investigation and contacts Zoya to help trap Arjun. She speaks to Arjun's father, who tells her to leave Arjun if he doesn't change his dishonest ways. With Zoya's help, the cops arrest Arjun, who is sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in the scene of IntervaL.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film is composed by Pritam with lyrics penned by Sayeed Quadri, Kamran Ahmed, R. Mehndi and Neelesh Misra. The album consists of 6 original songs, one remix and one Power Ballad. Kamran Ahmed from Pakistan wrote and sung the smash hit Judaai. The music by Pritam received generally huge positive reviews and the songs Judaai, Zara Sa, Haan Tu Hai and Jannat Jahan became chartbusters. K.K. was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer for his song Zara Sa while Kamran Ahmed won the MTV Breakthrough Artist Award for Judaai.

According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 1.6 million units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's seventh highest-selling.

Reception

A critic from The Times of India wrote that "Truly, this one's a case of a great opportunity going kaput". Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that "Jannat all comes down to the romance. The girl is a callcenter executive who doubles up as a stripper? The guy is a hardcore pro but bawls like a baby to make another bet? It is the unpredictability these two promise that makes Jannat interesting, even if ultimately a bit of a con job". A critic from The Economic Times wrote that "Alas in search of this heaven we only find hell".

Sequel

The sequel to Jannat was released on 4 May 2012, under the title of Jannat 2. The main direction/production crew remained the same. It was directed by Kunal Deshmukh, and produced by Mukesh Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt once again. Emraan Hashmi also appeared as the male lead actor again, opposite Esha Gupta, with Randeep Hooda in a supporting role. The music for the sequel was composed by Pritam. It was also commercially successful and grossed ₹650 million (US$6.8 million).

Key details