Murder 3: Third time yucky

Murder 3

Third time yucky

Director: Vishesh Bhatt

Cast: Randeep Hooda, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sara Loren

Can a long telephoto lens be a phallic symbol? As far as Bollywood goes, and that's not too far, that's a rhetorical question. Randeep Hooda replaces Emraan Hashmi, who played the male lead in the first two instalments, and emerges the single biggest attraction of Murder 3. Which isn't saying much even if Hooda strips better than Hashmi. He is also given a long, long lens to wield, and surrounded by scantily-clad, swooning females. If the Bhatts had given Hooda more able leading ladies to riff off, Murder 3 might have been something to look at. What we get instead is two of the most impact-less female lead parts I've seen in a while, packaged in an overlong series of ill-written, ill-acted sequences.

The smitten Roshni (Rao Hydari) wastes no time in chucking up a job in sunny South Africa, in order to move to Mumbai and live forever in domestic bliss with fashion photographer Vikram (Hooda). All is hunky-dory till a long legged lass starts making up to the lensman. Jealousy strikes. Tempers flare. Roshni hits upon an innovative idea to 'test' her lover. And then things start to unravel, especially when a bar hostess (Loren) shows up, with a shapely, sympathetic shoulder.

The Bhatts have always known how to do steam things up. And the Murder franchise, like the more obviously-named Jism, has delivered the mix in strong doses : toned, gleaming bodies, full-blown adult passions, tangled bed-sheets, all wrapped up in a couple of Sufi strains. This third Murder, an official remake of South American thriller The Hidden Face, has all the Vishesh ingredients, but they've been ordered clumsily: just one mildly spooky moment, and lines that are fall-down-funny, belying what's meant to be a tense build-up. Rao Hydari has shown spark in her earlier films; here she is buried in bad-make and silliness. We are left to wonder exactly why Loren is in the film; at the very least, she needed a serious voice coach.

... contd.

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