Imagine the level of creative impotence when one of the best films of the last decade — Na Hong-Jin's 2008 debut thriller, The Chaser is blatantly ripped off almost scene by scene and is still unable to stir a single emotion. Except maybe distaste for the makers. In the original and this rip-off, the serial killer, frustrated with his inability, tortures and butchers his victims. The same can be said of Mahesh Bhatt's banner that has been serially mutilating some of the best films made.

At best, Murder 2 is a show reel for the talented Prashant Narayanan, a men's room glossy featuring the saucy Jacqueline Fernandez and just another day on the job for serial kisser Emraan Hashmi. If Murder at least tried to be Unfaithful, Murder 2 is very faithful to the original, from the beginning to end, diverting only to show us Jacqueline make out with Hashmi in the song breaks and sometimes, to conform to the Bollywood rule book. How can a pimp be the hero and a sex worker the heroine in a Bollywood film? So, Hashmi does not play the pimp. He's the guy hired by the pimp (in the original, the pimp is the ex-cop who goes in search of the missing girl). And the girl is not a regular sex worker, she's a college student on her first assignment to send money to her widowed mother and pay for her sister's tuition as Hindi film tradition demands. And Jacqueline supposedly plays a model. So it is a little weird that Hashmi offers to pay her every time they go to bed. Even weirder that she loves him despite it. Also, how can a villain be just impotent in a Bollywood film? So, in an attempt to make him scary and dangerous, the makers make him a cross-dresser. Whoa! Talk about regression. Putting generous doses of kissing and sex alone do not make your films bold and progressive. On the contrary, a little sensitivity towards the LGBTs would be appreciated in these times.

This serial kisser-chasing-serial killer tale offers nothing but titillation from Yana Gupta and Jacqueline Fernandez for the front-bencher. There's plenty of blood and gore but most of it flows from the ripped out heart of The Chaser. Dear makers, there are more honourable ways to make a living than robbery. And Murder.