A
strange
thing
is
happening
to
Mahesh
Bhatt.
After
spending
years
extracting
creative
juices
from
real-
life
all
his
life,
now
when
the
cricket
fever
has
touched
an
all-time
high,
thanks
to
the
IPL,
producer
Mahesh
Bhatt
plays
down
the
cricketing
karma
of
his
new
film
Jannat.
"The
cricketing
world
is
only
the
wallpaper
in
Jannat.
The
cricketing
field
is
the
space
in
which
the
tale
of
this
risk
addict,
played
by
Emraan
Hashmi,
unfolds.
He
is
a
typical
product
of
the
21st
century
who
goes
into
shopping
malls
to
look
for
new
things
to
buy
everyday.
Emraan
plays
the
kind
of
person
for
whom
the
end
is
more
important
than
the
means.
He
then
meets
this
girl
who
changes
his
life.
When
personal
gratification
becomes
more
important
than
the
larger
concern,
then
society
is
doomed.
Emraan
plays
a
character
who
needs
to
restrain
himself
from
the
acquisitive
tendency," opines
the
man
whose
cinema
has
constantly
walked
the
tightrope
depicting
the
worlds
of
idealism
and
corruption.
Mahesh
admits
Jannat
goes
into
match-fixing.
"But
like
I
said,
it's
reflective
of
the
times
we
live
in.
It
holds
a
mirror
to
the
conscience
of
today's
youth
who
believe
gratification
is
the
bottomline
of
existence."
He
hesitates
in
connecting
Jannat
with
present-day
happenings
in
the
cricketing
world.
"Incidents
like
Bob
Woolmer's
suspicious
death
were
at
the
back
of
my
writers' heads.
But
to
say
that
Jannat
replays
incidents
from
the
cricketing
world
like
the
Woolmer
one
would
be
absurd.
It's
just
a
grotesque
coincidence
that
the
actor
who
plays
Woolmer
was
a
close
buddy
of
the
dead
man."
Mahesh
would
rather
focus
on
the
larger
moral
question
that
his
cinema
raises.
"Cricketers
are
as
human
as
anyone
else
liable
to
be
seduced
by
the
goodies
of
the
world.
The
film
points
out
that
there's
huge
money
in
cricket.
It's
a
money-making
industry.
Everybody
exploits
this
deity
called
cricket.
So
does
my
hero
Emraan."
He
saves
a
special
word
of
praise
for
his
leading
man.
"I
think
Jannat
is
Emraan's
coming-of-age
movie.
It'd
do
for
Emraan
what
my
Naam
did
for
Sanjay
Dutt.
He
is
a
vulnerable
abominable
risk-taker
who
falls
in
love
with
a
woman
who
has
a
value-system
totally
contrary
to
his."
Story first published: Thursday, May 22, 2008, 10:04 [IST]