A few years back, Sony Entertainment channel used to feature on television, AAHAT, a 30 to 60 minutes episode on horror, every Friday and Saturday night.This program, which ran continuously for many weeks, used to regularly feature episodes on occult rites, migration into the nether world, bhoot and pret atmas, haunted houses, bandh darwaza(who can forget the good old Ramsays?), full length mirrors, broken mirrors, magical mirrors, the living dead, levitation, Ganga jal, amulets etc., and occasionally managed to give the viewer, the jitters.
To those like me, who have watched these episodes on television then, Raaz 3, or other horror films like RGV‘s Bhoot would seem familiar, juvenile, and on weak territory.I am not even talking of movies from abroad like The Omen and The Entity.
This apart, the suspense element which was the USP in the Dino Morea –Bipasha starrer, Raaz is, more or less, absent in Raaz 3, the third film in the Raaz trilogy. The viewers become aware in the very first fifteen minutes of the movie, as to of how the story is going to unfold. Two out of the three main characters in the film also know what is going on. There is also a prelude, that gives a cue to the viewer, before every horror scene. So much for the Raaz!
Cinematography
Camera work by Pravin Bhatt is good. It is moody, and sombre in keeping with the theme of the movie, and one of its major plus points.
Music
No melodies, no Nadeem –Shravan here.The mainstream songs by Jeet Ganguli, Mithoon and Rashid are situationally well-placed in the movie, and do not disturb the continuity in the narrative of the film.Though background scores, and sound effects are integral adjuncts in horror, I felt the background score of Raaz 3(Raju Singh) to be loud and raucous, and heralding the oncoming horror scenes, long before the visuals came on. Again, the passion play between Emraan and Bipasha could have been handled without the cacophony of the background score. Unlike in prose or poetry, where one needs graphic words and phrases to convey the mood, audio- visual mediums like cinema are best handled in subtle undertones, so that there is no onslaught on the viewers’ nerves, or their intelligence.
Direction, Screenplay, Editing
Raaz 3 straddles the world of emotions and horror intermittently. The interplay of these two factors salvages the script to a certain extent.Bipasha‘s role is not fully developed to warrant her frustration. It is inconceivable that having lost a film award or so, one would go about, rushing the way she does planning for retribution, and Emraan tells her as much in the film .The climax scenes are also a drag at some places.
Vikram Bhatt, a veteran with twenty plus films, to his credit, holds the plot together, helped with tight editing by his team.
The biggest flaw in Raaz 3 is that the horror here is not the raw primal type that emanates, or grows on one from natural settings, but the synthetic and theatrical type, promoted almost like a marketing campaign, with background scores and sounds, blaring gratuitously in the background. In that sense, the film also seemed to me an example of missed opportunities in the horror genre. Natural horror settings, like the hospital morgue, or the cemetery, are brought in on the screen in a rushed manner, rather than in a slow and paranormal manner, and without appropriate light and sound effects .
Cast
As for the performances, Emraan Hashmi(playing Aditya, a film director, ) has lost his lean and hungry look, and looks portly and affluent. Except running around as a beau to both Bipasha and Esha, and appeasing one, and caring for the other, in their travails, he has nothing much to do. Given these inherent limitations to his role, he delivers a competent performance, his trademark ‘serial kisser’ tag remaining intact in this film too.Bipasha Basu(playing Shanaya, a film actress, ) is a far cry from the fresh face she was in Raaz.Nevertheless, she plays the role of the vengeful and fading superstar to perfection. Esha Gupta(playing Sanjana, another film actress, ) in her second film(after Jannat 2), alternates between looking petrified, and emotional breakdowns, to hold her own against the other two seasoned performers.
Sound
Though the overall tone and tenor of sound in the film is loud, the audio quality of the dialogues in the film(dubbing) is outstanding. Even the undertones are easily audible, without needing to strain one’s ears.
Visual Effects( VFX)
As I have no particular liking to objects or scenes flying in my face in 3D, I watched the movie in 2D.There are a fair amount of well-conceived visuals, (not elaborated here), including the scene with the swarm of cockroaches, all of which should look good in 3D.
Scorecard
So is Raaz 3 worth a watch? I would say yes. It is not overly credible, nor does it deliver too many chills, (except occasionally, the joker scene, for example).However, once you suspend rationality, it does entertain, more like a thriller, with its narrative flow, and the way the scenes are mounted.
Incidentally, if trade pundits are to be believed, the movie is a ‘hit’, having raked in Rs47 crores in the first five days, after its release.
I also read somewhere that Raaz 4 also is in the offing.If it is true, I would only say Amen! and hope that Raaz 4 transcends the limitations of Raaz 3.