MUMBAI: In the first ten minutes of Kunal Deshmukh’s second instalment of the “Jannat” series, the director sets up his principal characters, establishes a romance angle and even adds a song for good measure. He also manages to inject no originality or freshness in any of these facets of the film, with the result that “Jannat 2” never really takes off, maintaining a staid pace throughout its two-and-half-hour duration.

Deshmukh borrows nothing from the original “Jannat”, except for his lead hero and the vague notion of a protagonist who seeks heaven on earth — mostly in the arms of a coy lady.

Emraan Hashmi plays Sonu, a smart-talking small-time crook, who deals in firearms. When he comes across a angst-ridden cop (Randeep Hooda) who urges him to turn into a police informer, Sonu agrees, hoping it’ll keep him out of trouble with the police.

When Sonu falls in love and decides to get married to a coy doctor named Jhanvi (newcomer Esha Gupta), he doesn’t realise his past will come back to haunt him.

Deshmukh keeps his story pretty straight and simple — sometimes overly so. The gun trade, Hooda’s anger and his desire for revenge are explained away rather superficially.

The dialogue is sprinkled liberally with lots of swear words that seem to have been added just for the shock effect — they lend absolutely nothing to the film otherwise. Deshmukh sticks to the Bhatt formula — lots of skin show, provocative dialogue and Emraan Hashmi.

Unfortunately, the whole film has the distinct look of a college play — and Deshmukh’s amateurish direction comes across rather glaringly. The film is too long and none of the lead actors manage to inject any energy in their roles. Hooda, especially, is too over-the-top to be believable.

Unless you are a huge Emraan Hashmi fan — and he might be the one reason to watch this film — give this one a wide berth. AGENCIES