Jism 2
At: Inox and other cinemas
Directed by Pooja Bhatt
Cast: Sunny Leone, Radneep Hooda, Arunoday Singh, Arif Zakaria and others
Rating: * *
Casting Sunny Leone, real-life porn star, in Jism 2 was an inspired bit of casting. It promises an audience of panting men, and in the case of a suburban theatre, giggling girls, some sort of A-rated treat. But the inspiration end there, and may be with the tantalizing poster of a nude woman writhing beneath a thin white sheet. Anyone who buys a ticket attracted by all the salacious hype will feel shortchanged.
Sunny Leone wears as brief clothing as censors would allow and at one point declares, “Main desh ki seva karti hoon, kapde utaar ke.” (No wonder the girls were giggling!) Pooja Bhatt directs a potentially steamy thriller-romance by pouring cold water over it. The three actors show off their gym-toned bodies alright, but the thin plot, plodding pace and cheesy dialogue just drop on their head like a load!
Izna (Leone) is a soft-porn actress, who is offered a great deal of money to trap her former boyfriend Kabir (Randeep Hooda). The men who hire her — Ayaan (Arunoday Singh) and his boss (Arif Zakaria) are from some shady intelligence agency and their target is an assassin.
They move next door to him, at a pretty Sri Lankan resort, and soon there is a full blown love triangle going on, with both the men vying for Izna’s love (she offers the jism, they don’t seem all that turned on), while she scrambles about trying to get some crucial data from Kabir.
Pooja Bhatt taste in locations and interiors must be commended — the characters live in stunning houses with designer inter- iors. But what’s with the
corny writing and uncontrolled performances? If Sunny Leone looks lost and speaks in a little girl voice, that’s somewhat excusable since it’s her first Hindi film, but Arunoday Singh acts like he is in a school play and Randeep Hooda as if he were doing Shakespearean tragedy.
How they uttered lines line “Apne dil ki shikayat khoon se kardi, bas ek shikayat hai ki kaash mere khoon ka rang mere ishq ki tarah gehra hota;” “Usse pyaar karna meri woh pyaas thi jisse pyaas bujhti thi meri;” “Jo aadmi apne mulk se wafadari nahi kar saka, usne iske jism se wafadari kardi,” without wincing is astonishing.
Jism 2 is neither thrilling nor erotic, just plain daft. There’s more sizzle between the pages on a fashion magazine then there is between the sheets in this film.