Murder 3

The concept of a sequel or even franchise was long abandoned by Mahesh Bhatt and his ilk when they started randomly churning out follow-ups to their commercially successful movies. So other than maybe an actor or two you'll find as much similarity within the Murder, Raaz, Jannat, Jism franchise movies as much as between chalk and cheese. So Murder 3 has nothing in common with the earlier movies and is instead a direct “remake” of the Spanish movie called 'The Hidden Face', which I haven't seen.

A wildlife photographer turned fashion photographer (Randeep Hooda) whose girlfriend (Aditi Rao Hydari) leaves him when she suspects him of having an affair. To sooth his aching heart he starts an affair with a zombie..err waitress (Sara Loren) at a bar he frequents. Zombie waitress moves in with him and starts hearing, seeing, and imagining strange things. His first girlfriend is still missing and the mystery remains as to her remains.

The plot is an excuse to fit in some lame duck songs, crummy dialogues, bland narrative and loads of faux erotica. When the movie begins to pack in the horror movie shenanigans, replete with odd sound effects, you know where things are headed and boy do things get repetitive quickly.

Sara Loren has a range of expressions that rival those of a spoon, while Hooda looks like he desperately needs to clear his throat all the time. Aditi Rao Hydari is the only one who comes out of this train-wreck with an ounce of dignity.

I'd say watch it with a group of friends and marvel at the pinnacle of bad acting that is Sara Loren, if you though Esha Gupta was bad, then you haven't seen anything yet.

Murder 3 is a film about tests. We see the characters going through or putting others through a test of love. To the ignorance of the makers, the film gradually becomes a test of your patience and intellect. Ultimately it ends up cheating you. For starters, there is no murder in the film. None. Zero. What we see murdered is the filmmaker's ability to think as what ends up on screen lacks any sort of conviction. This is the directorial debut of Vishesh Bhatt (Mukesh Bhatt's son) who shows no promise whatsoever. The first hour is Sara Loren trying very hard to act. The second hour is Aditi Rao Hydari trying to rescue the film. For two and a half hours, Randeep Hooda is trying to be taken seriously. I don't even want to bother calling it a bad film, it's just a waste of celluloid.

The first hour of the film is lackluster and thoroughly uninteresting. It only picks up post-intermission but by then it is too late. Why? Not so much because of the plot. There is an intriguing plot twist during the second half of the film, which is set in motion by a Hindi-speaking British lady. Yes, any chances of you taking *that* seriously are diminished at the outset by this inane character inclusion. Surprisingly, I did start getting engaged (Hey, I'm human). I don't want to reveal details of the plot because if you are actually planning to watch the film (I suggest you don't), you will at least come out having seen one-third of what we call, a story. The silly characterization and terrible writing brings the house down. Although there is a bigger catch, the plot is obviously not original and taken from another film. Vishesh Bhatt carries on the legacy of his father all right.

I am a fan of the DVD collection of the Bhatts but not what they do with it. The first Murder had elements of Unfaithful (2002), the second one was a mix of the South-Korean stunner The Chaser (2008) to the masterpiece that is The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Murder 3 is copied from the Colombian thriller The Hidden Face (2011). You should be aware that if you want to watch this story, watch the original and don't bother with the “murdered” version. I haven't seen the original but I saw the trailer and it looks infinitely better. The British lady is supposed to be German in it. All right then. I guess I must have missed the part where history books mentioned the similarities between the Partition and the Holocaust. A bang up job of “adaptation”. (Heaviest form of sarcasm intended)

I'm still wondering what Aditi Rao Hydari was doing in this film. I wouldn't be surprised if she is doing the same. She is clearly a good actress and could have chosen a better project to pursue a stronger career trajectory. Come to think of it, Randeep Hooda isn't a bad actor either but he seems to be getting worse with each film. He should kiss the Bhatt camp goodbye and look for work elsewhere. The truly atrocious actor in the film is Sara Loren. Neither does she look good nor does she perform well.

The Murder franchise (if it can be called a franchise) worked with the audience because of three things. An interesting plot, eroticism but mainly Emraan Hashmi. Murder 3 offers none of these. No murder, no skin-show and no Emraan. I didn't go looking for the skin-show for sure, nor am I a die-hard Emraan fan but I am the most ardent fan of a good story. There is a spark of a story in this film. It tries to take off but the complete lack of the filmmaker's storytelling skills ruin any chance the movie has to be called entertaining. Murder 3 is promoted with a tagline which goes “This valentine love will be murdered”. They are absolutely right. Love is murdered indeed. The love for my brain and choice in movies.

In Jannat 2 Randeep Hooda left a bigger impact than Emraan Hashmi ( Bhatt's go to guy for number wala films). They tried doing a Hashmi with Randeep in Jism 2. It didn't work. This time around also they try to make a Hashmi out of him. Yet again, it didn't work.

Roshni (Aditi Rao Hydari) suspects that Vikram ( Randeep Hooda) is having an affair with his colleague. All of a sudden she walks out of his life breaking up over a video recording. Vikram finds sex and love in a restaurant hostess Nisha ( Sara Loren). He brings her to his house where strange things start happening.

An official remake of the Colombian film The Hidden Face the film is ok till the 1st half but then it goes into becoming a parody of its own plot. Most of the 2nd half is spent like a dummies guide in understanding the first half. I quote the guy sitting next to me " bade pyar se samjha raha hai interval ke pehle kya hua. Aage badh yaar"

Randeep Hooda sleep walks through his act like he did in Jism2. Aditi Rao Hydari provides unintentional comic relief in the second half and the new girl Sara Loren is what Esha Gupta was in Raaz 3. She sticks to her brief very well. Show skin but not too much, perfect the art of bathing for camera, look scared and dumb.

Vishesh Bhatt makes a forgettable debut and the only good part about his direction is that he doesn't make the film last more than 2 hours.

Word of mouth - Vishesh films murders their own franchisee under the direction of Vishesh himself.

Rating - ** ( Below Average)

Ticket meter - worth 100 bucks

The first half of Murder 3 is a yawn fest. Everybody talks in scary or scared hushed tones, the expressions are stricken and the music also all horror movie types. It does nothing to build atmosphere, suspense or drama and everything to make you want to slap people out of their stupor.

The second half is when the movie picks up considerably and becomes kind of interesting in spite of the bizarreness of the basic premise.. The twists in the tale become quite intriguing and you are quite drawn into the story in spite of the wooden acting by one of the female leads.

Randeep Hooda plays the successful photographer with a roving eye quite easily. Aditi Rao Hyderi is sweet but has a bit of a cloying presence at times. The other lead .... Should get the Best Zombie (Female) Award. Her body language , dialogue delivery and expressions all point to one word 'stiff' (which in the context of a murder movie shouldn't be so bad actually!)

You can catch the movie post interval. Just go before the second half starts, ask the guy in the next seat what happened in the first half and you should be able to get a one line synopses that will set you up well to enjoy the second half. Not bad enough to kill the Director but justifies grievous hurt by a blunt instrument.