The film Murder may be remembered only for Mallika Sherawat’s histrionics (ahem) along with Emraan Hashmi, but it did give a new life to the genre of erotic thrillers in mainstream Hindi Cinema. Murder 2 is no sequel to the original, but the name hardly matters as the movie works with some strong performances, and a captivating screenplay.

What’s it about : Arjun (Emraan Hashmi) is an ex-cop in Goa, who does odd jobs for local mobsters, peddlers etc., plainly for money. He is still unable to come to terms with the untimely deaths of his family, and even though he likes Priya (Jacqueline Fernandez), he is unable to commit himself to her. During the Christmas season, a local pimp asks Arjun to take care of a situation – few of his girls have vanished, which has begun to scare his remaining ‘team members’. Arjun asks him to send another girl, and keep him informed so that they can capture the culprit, assuming it to be yet another case of human trafficking. The pimp does exactly as told by Arjun; only he sends a first timer, who enters the business to take care of her family needs. Neither he nor Arjun realize that there is a murderer on the prowl, who finds great sadistic pleasure in hurting, killing and chopping girls! It isn’t long before Arjun realizes this, and by a stroke of luck finds the killer, Dheeraj Pandey (Prashant Narayan). Their scuffle results in both of them being taken to the police station, where Arjun is looked down upon by his ex-colleagues. The police realize that Dheeraj is mentally sick, and inspite of having his confession they still need strong evidence against him.

Dheeraj, who is revealed to be a eunuch, has strong support from a political person, also a eunuch, and hence the police have no other choice but to release him. Can Arjun find the evidence against this serial killer?

What is Good : The biggest strength of Murder 2 is its performances. For a change, Emraan Hashmi will be remembered for his performance as a troubled ex-cop who blames himself for the plight of a young girl. Of course he does his usual jig that he is famous for (as a serial kisser) with Jacqueline Fernandez. The girl looks good, bringing certain boldness only girls in Emraan Hashmi’s movies tend to bring forward. Sulagna Panigrahi, as the prostitute in trouble, manages to evoke sympathy for her character. However, the story gives more scope to Prashant Narayan, who excels in the role of an unpredictable sadistic killer. He is matched only by Shweta Kawatra, in a small scene, where both the actors almost outdo each other.

It is indeed interesting to see that even though the villain is caught in the first half of the film, the screenplay manages to keep us on the edge, with some arresting scenes. To summarize it Murder 2 works on keeping you guessing, with a touch of glamour and some level of gore.

What is bad: Inspite of its very small run-time, Murder 2 does have boring elements. Jacqueline’s character adds a lot of skin show and very little meaning to the overall proceedings of the film. That the police let go off a mentally sick person, who attacks a doctor, just because he gets political support is plain ridiculous. If not for extremely honest performances from the main leads, the movie would have got lost in some repetitive situations, and gore scenes inspired by Hollywood films. Of course, the story of an ex-cop, coming from Bhatt camp, can hardly be expected to be original, as it seems to draws its main theme from Korean movie The Chaser; but that should hardly be a complaint.

Technical Departments : The background score is as riveting as is the cinematography of Ravi Walia. Though there are no hit numbers, the songs do make an impact, especially the one in which Yana Gupta scorches the screen. Screenplay and dialogue from Shagufta Rafique is appreciable, and the lady seems to have a great partnership going with director Mohit Suri. The director too doesn’t depend on the laurels of Murder. Just like he unearths a dark underbelly of porn filmmaking in his earlier work Kalyug, he delves into the mysterious world of eunuchs, even only for few moments. He also brings a lot of believability to the characters, which otherwise look to far from real life. That’s why, in spite of its tiny glitches, Murder 2 works.

Bottomline : Murder 2 is for those who won’t mind thrillers that work on gore and glamour. However, remember this is no way a sequel to Murder, and isn’t just an erotic thriller.