Raaz 3
Rating :
Hero :
Emraan Haashmi
Heroine :
Bipasha Basu
Other Cast :
Esha Gupta, Anand
Director :
Vikram Bhatt
Music Director :
Jeeth Ganguly, Mithoon, Rashid
Producer :
Mahesh Bhatt, Mukesh Bhatt
Release Date :
07-09-2012
Some movies just make you think why oh why I spent precious money on this. Then there are movies like Raaz 3 that are just so damn ridiculous than scary yet instill that voyeuristic need to watch a crappy movie. The one thing that can be ensured about Raaz 3 is that it never gets boring. A few half-spooky scenes, inadvertent hilarity, dippy dialogues written by Shagufta Rafique and the spectacularly bad acting keeps you entertained for the most part.
It had so much going for it. A plotline about an older actress threatened by the rise of a younger one seems even more contemporary now than it did in 1950, when All About Eve first came out. And a spoilt, self-obsessed, uber-ambitious Bipasha Basu as reigning Bollywood heroine Shanaya Shekhar (look, people, this is fiction); a puppydog-eyed Emraan Hashmi as her secret squeeze; and a nubile nymphet who’s stealing Bipasha’s awards (and boyfriend) from under her nose – what could be a better setting for a steamy saga of professional and sexual jealousy? It’s almost a tale meant for black magic.
The story had hardly any hard work going into it. Shanaya is an actress undergoing her downfall courtesy a newbie Sanjana (Esha Gupta) suddenly rising in the film world. A devout follower, she loses faith in her god when the best actress award goes to her competitor and as insecurity creeps in, she chooses to opt for the evil ways in order bring Sanjana down and reclaim her position. Obsessed with destroying Sanjana she uses her filmmaker boyfriend Aditya Arora to help her carry out her plans. However, in the process, Aditya falls for Sanjana and tables turn as he then starts taking her side. Whether Shanaya succeeds in her objectives or not follows through a long tirade between God and Evil, black magic and prayers etc.
Filmed in 3D but barely justifying the technology, 'Raaz 3' is visually flat. Bhatt employs all the usual horror-movie tropes like creaking doors, fog-filled frames, and a macabre background score and yet the film is about as scary as a six-year-old wearing a Frankenstein mask. To be honest, 'Raaz 3' has more laugh-out-loud moments than jump-in-your-seat jolts. The second half goes just the way so many films do : down the chute. Or, in the instance of ‘Raaz 3’, in that ‘in between place which are inhabited by pret-aatmas’. Right there, the little bit of frisson that the film managed to garner vanishes, maybe in that self-same place. Out come all the 'sadhus’ and 'babas’ with their 'mantras’, and the `bhagwaan ki moorti’, and it all boils down to the same old battle against good and evil, borrowing from older horror tropes from here and there.
Watching Raaz 3 is like being at a magic show where you've figured out the magician's sleight of hand; you see the show unfold, already knowing how each trick will exactly play out.
It had so much going for it. A plotline about an older actress threatened by the rise of a younger one seems even more contemporary now than it did in 1950, when All About Eve first came out. And a spoilt, self-obsessed, uber-ambitious Bipasha Basu as reigning Bollywood heroine Shanaya Shekhar (look, people, this is fiction); a puppydog-eyed Emraan Hashmi as her secret squeeze; and a nubile nymphet who’s stealing Bipasha’s awards (and boyfriend) from under her nose – what could be a better setting for a steamy saga of professional and sexual jealousy? It’s almost a tale meant for black magic.
The story had hardly any hard work going into it. Shanaya is an actress undergoing her downfall courtesy a newbie Sanjana (Esha Gupta) suddenly rising in the film world. A devout follower, she loses faith in her god when the best actress award goes to her competitor and as insecurity creeps in, she chooses to opt for the evil ways in order bring Sanjana down and reclaim her position. Obsessed with destroying Sanjana she uses her filmmaker boyfriend Aditya Arora to help her carry out her plans. However, in the process, Aditya falls for Sanjana and tables turn as he then starts taking her side. Whether Shanaya succeeds in her objectives or not follows through a long tirade between God and Evil, black magic and prayers etc.
Filmed in 3D but barely justifying the technology, 'Raaz 3' is visually flat. Bhatt employs all the usual horror-movie tropes like creaking doors, fog-filled frames, and a macabre background score and yet the film is about as scary as a six-year-old wearing a Frankenstein mask. To be honest, 'Raaz 3' has more laugh-out-loud moments than jump-in-your-seat jolts. The second half goes just the way so many films do : down the chute. Or, in the instance of ‘Raaz 3’, in that ‘in between place which are inhabited by pret-aatmas’. Right there, the little bit of frisson that the film managed to garner vanishes, maybe in that self-same place. Out come all the 'sadhus’ and 'babas’ with their 'mantras’, and the `bhagwaan ki moorti’, and it all boils down to the same old battle against good and evil, borrowing from older horror tropes from here and there.
Watching Raaz 3 is like being at a magic show where you've figured out the magician's sleight of hand; you see the show unfold, already knowing how each trick will exactly play out.
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