Murder 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mohit Suri
Screenplay by	Shagufta Rafique
Story by	Mahesh Bhatt
Produced by	Mahesh Bhatt
Starring	Emraan Hashmi Jacqueline Fernandez
Cinematography	Ravi Walia
Edited by	Devendra Murdeshwar
Music by	Harshit Saxena Mithoon Sangeet Haldipur Siddharth Haldipur
Distributed by	Vishesh Films
Release date	8 July 2011 (2011-07-08)
Running time	127 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi[1]
Budget	₹13 crore (US$1.6 million)[2]
Box office	₹72 crore (US$8.6 million)[3]

Murder 2 is a 2011 Indian thriller film and the quasi-sequel to the 2004 film, Murder.The second installment in murder(film series ). It stars Emraan Hashmi and Jacqueline Fernandez in the lead. Directed by Mohit Suri and produced by Mahesh Bhatt, the film released on July 8, 2011. The theatrical trailer of the film was revealed on June 1, 2011 and also in cinemas with Salman Khan starrer Ready. It is one of the highest grossing Bollywood films of 2011.^[4][5] It was second in a series of quasi-sequels released under the Bhatt Banner including Raaz – The Mystery Continues, Jannat 2, Jism 2, Raaz 3D and 1920: Evil Returns, each of which had nothing to do with their respective prequels, but somehow fell in the same genre following a similar story. Murder 2 takes same plot elements from Academy Award-winning Hollywood film The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and South Korean film The Chaser (2008). ^[6][7]

Plot

Arjun Bhagwat (Emraan Hashmi) is an ex-police officer who is hungry for money and earns his bread by doing wrong things. He is an atheist (Nastik) but regularly visits church to donate money to orphans. Priya (Jacqueline Fernandez), a model, is in a passionate but confused relationship with Arjun.

Arjun meets a gangster, Sameer, who has been going through a slump in his business due to an unexplained disappearance of his hookers. Sameer offers him a huge amount of money to locate the missing girls, which Arjun accepts. During his investigation, Arjun finds a phone number linked to the missing girls. He tells Sameer to send a prostitute to the number. Sameer decides to send Reshma (Sulagna Panigrahi), a 17-year-old college newcomer in the business, who has entered prostitution to feed her family, though keeps this a secret from them. Reshma is sent to the house of Dheeraj Pandey (Prashant Narayanan), who is actually a psychopath murderer responsible for torturing and killing the missing hookers. He decides to do the same with Reshma and throws her in a dark well to die after torturing her.

Arjun finds out that Dheeraj is the murderer and tells the police. While Dheeraj is held in jail, the commissioner calls a psychiatrist to extract his confession. Dheeraj tells the doctor that he kills women because he thinks they take advantage of men. He also reveals that he castrated himself and became an eunuch to get rid of his addiction to sex and women, with the help of a fellow eunuch and big-shot politician, Nirmala Pandit. Dheeraj is eventually let out under Nirmala Pandit's influence. Meanwhile, Reshma escapes from the well and tries to find her way out through the forest.

Arjun meets Dheeraj's family, who reveal that Dheeraj used to beat his wife. He next meets a private dancer, Sonia, who had also been tortured by Dheeraj, but managed to escape. Arjun then meets an idol-maker who used to work with Dheeraj. The maker tells him that Dheeraj used to make idols of devils instead of deities and killed the factory-owner who tried to stop him. Inspector Siddharth (Sudhanshu Pandey) informs Arjun that Dheeraj is free, and the police try to track him down as fast as possible. Nirmala and Dheeraj enter the same temple where Reshma is hiding. Nirmala and the priest, who had both been unaware of Dheeraj's true nature, are killed by Dheeraj, but not before the priest reveals that Reshma is there. Dheeraj finds the terrified Reshma and brutally murders her, escaping just before Arjun and the cops arrive. Arjun finds Reshma's body and breaks down, feeling guilty and responsible for her death.

Dheeraj targets Priya next, but Arjun saves her, engaging Dheeraj in a fight as police officers show up. They request Arjun not to kill Dheeraj. Dheeraj then plays the tape he recorded of torturing Reshma. Hearing Reshma's pleading cries, Arjun, tormented by her death and blaming himself for it, angrily kills Dheeraj, ending his reign of terror once and for all.

Cast

• Emraan Hashmi as Arjun Bhagawat
• Jacqueline Fernandez as Priya
• Prashant Narayanan as Dheeraj Pandey
• Sulagna Panigrahi as Reshma
• Sudhanshu Pandey as Inspector Siddharth
• Sandeep Sikand as Nirmala Pandit
• Bikramjeet Kanwarpal as Commissioner Ahmed Khan
• Shweta Kawatra as Psychiatrist Dr. Sania (Special Appearance)
• Yana Gupta as Jyoti, Special Appearance in song "Aa Zara"
• Amardeep Jha as Reshma's mother
• Jhuma Biswas as Hostel Warden
• Deep Jyoti Das as Criminal Lawyer

Production and filming

The film was shot in Mumbai and Goa. Earlier, Bipasha Basu was offered the part of the leading lady, but she refused. The part then went to Jacqueline Fernandez, after also considering actress Sonal Chauhan. Basu was also offered the item number "Aa Zara". When she refused, the song was given to Yana Gupta.^[8]

The song "Haal-E-Dil" had to be re-shot to make it more suitable for television promos.^[9]

Yana Gupta's item number "Aa Zara" was not aired on television promos as it was too explicit and suggestive for audiences under 18. Instead, the number was shot with Jacqueline Fernandez and Emraan Hashmi, which was aired on television. The original number with Yana was retained in the film.^[10]

The film has been claimed to be an unofficial remake of the South Korean movie The Chaser, whilst being influenced by real-life events including Ted Bundy's case.^[11] The DVD of the film was released on 1 August 2011.

Reception

Critical reception

Murder 2 received mixed to positive reviews from various critics of India. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it 4/5 stars and stated "Murder 2 is one of the finest crime stories to come out of the Hindi film industry. Also, as a film, it lives up to the expectations that you may associate from a sequel of a smash hit."^[12] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the movie 2.5/5 stars.^[13] Nikita Kapoor of FilmiTadka rated the film with 2.5/5 stars and said - "Overall Murder 2 is an adult, violent, and gruesome movie, which is a good thing, however after a time you feel as if the film was written and directed only for Emraan Hashmi (excessive presence in every frame) which doesn’t go down well with me."^[14] Raja Sen of Rediff gave it 1.5/5 stars and wrote in his review - "Murder 2 is flat, boring and not worth talking about. Even Emraan, sporting less stubble than usual, seems baby-faced as he goes through the motions. It might be inspired by some obscure film, but I don't even care enough to look for its name. By now, I've come to accept that the Bhatts have a bigger DVD collection than me. I do wish they'd stop flaunting it, though."^[15] Komal Nahta of Koimoi rated Murder 2 with 3/5 stars and said - " It doesn’t have too much to offer in terms of entertainment as it is a dark film but its plus points are the abundant sex scenes and the good music. Its reasonable budget on the one hand, and wonderful recovery from sale of its satellite, music and worldwide theatrical rights on the other have ensured that the producers have made a handsome profit before release."^[16]

Box office

The film opened extremely well with full houses almost everywhere across India with the occupancy ranging from 70-100%.^[17] The film grossed ₹22.35 crore (US$2.7 million) in its opening weekend.^[18][19] The film went on to gross ₹36.5 crore (US$4.4 million) in its first week, although collections were affected on July 13–14 due to the bomb blasts in Mumbai on July 13, 2011.^[20]

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was released on May 30, 2011. It was composed by Harshit Saxena, Mithoon, Sangeet Haldipur and Siddharth Haldipur and lyrics were penned by Sayeed Quadri, Kumaar and Mithoon.

Tracklist

Reception

The album received positive reviews from critics. Joginder Tuteja from Bollywood Hungama gave the album a 3/5 stars saying that "Murder 2 turns out to be a good deal overall." Musicaloud gave the album 3.5/5 stars.^[21]

Awards and Nominations

Sequel

A sequel titled Murder 3 is currently in production starring Randeep Hooda, Aditi Rao Hydari and Pakistani actress Mona Lizza in the lead. The film is expected to release on 15 February 2013.

References

External links

• Murder 2 at IMDb