Self indulgent

Film:  Jism 2

Producer: Dino Morea and Pooja Bhatt

Director: Pooja Bhatt

Cast: Sunny Leone, Randeep Hooda and Arunoday Singh

Duration: 2 hours 12 minutes

Genre: Erotic thriller

Ratings: Below Average

by Bhawana Somaaya

Story

A porn star (Sunny Leone) is hired by a dashing intelligence officer (Arunoday Singh) to become a Honey-trap for a dreaded assassin (Randeep Hooda). In doing so, she not only has to confront her bitter-sweet past, but is also forced to make an impossible choice - one that will put her own life in double jeopardy.

What works about the film

Let me think…the title perhaps or may be the marketing strategy employed for the film promotion. They not only pre-poned the film by a week but were in the eye of the storm with so many controversies related to the film. Everybody is curious to know what is beneath the transparent sheet particularly since the government banned the posters on the eve of the release. What works also to an extent is Mahesh-Pooja Bhatt brand who seven years ago gave us a very bold film Jism.

Performances

All of them are extremely bad but if I have to put them in the worst order it would start with senior IB officer Arif Zakaria who is hilariously out of place, his junior Arunoday Singh who is expressionless through out the film, cop turned aggressor Randeep Hooda who is so inconsistent that I suspect he is performing to a different script in his mind and finally Sunny Leone –all she does in the film is to walk around in lingerie and heave her bosom heavily.

What doesn’t work about the film

Everything – to begin with there is hardly any ‘jism’ in the film – except some smooching scenes. The story line is anorexic with no insights into the making of a porn star. The art with low lights and ink blue walls is suffocating and self indulgent, there are too many songs and the overpowering background music interrupt an already shaky narrative. The Bhatts are known for their characterization but this time all the interpersonal relationships appear synthetic. Mahesh Bhatt’s dialogues are rhetoric. It is evident that he has nothing new to comment on the subject.

Verdict

The film will have a good opening because of the steamy posters and the controversies surrounding the ban on them but once inside the theatres, the audiences are bound to feel cheated. Pooja Bhatt has been saying in all her interviews that Jism is about the female gaze. The camera does not stop lingering over Sunny Leone’s bosom. I suspect the camera prefers the male gaze.

The review appears as it is in Blockbuster, a newly launched trade magazine.

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