Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

When Mahesh Bhatt had conceptualized JANNAT in the aftermath of the mysterious death of Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer's death during the cricket world cup in West Indies, he would not have visualized that at the time of release of his film, he would have to measure up to the success of IPL, which is having an international fan following extending across to continents of Europe and Asia as well. In such a scenario JANNAT is releasing and would be highlighting the role of the bookies in the film.

But the role of bookies is not relegated to cricket only. Whatever be the form of sports, wherever commercial interests have been involved and where investments have been made, it is aspired for to recoup those investments, and in the process if some rules and procedures are manipulated so be it.

JANNAT may arose mixed feelings, as it could cast the role of bookies in the game of cricket in a proper perspective, and many a skeletons could tumble out of the closet if the film hits the nail on the murky head of the bookies. For India, the proportion of money that is being pumped into cricket, specifically into IPL, there is an urgent need for clarity of operations in the state of affairs of cricket, so that the voices of match manipulations and fixing may be muffled, and JANNAT may have the potential to do so.

Though cricket has a gospel like position in the country, it has not had a celluloid success in the same proportion as well. This could be probably for the reason that the celluloid world of Hindi cinema has not dabbled with cricket on regular basis. There have been only few attempts and notables include DEV Anand's AWWAL NUMBER, Kumar Gaurav's ALL ROUNDER, but the most successful of all of them has been Aamir Khan's LAGAAN wherein the nationalist fervor was sewn into the story.

Mahesh Bhatt, for the first time is having his take on the sport of cricket and he would have his own interpretation about the way the things operate in the cricketing world. Clashing with the peak time of IPL, the film would have to be really captivating to wean away the audience from the television sets, and this would be the real challenge that Mahesh Bhatt could be facing for the first time in his life. If the audience leaves IPL and goes for JANNAT then it would be 'Jannat' for Bhatt, or else...