After 'Raaz' and 'Raaz - The Mystery Continues', audience has definitely built good expectations from the franchise and with Vikram Bhatt at the helm of affairs and Bipasha Basu along with Emraan Hashmi joining the cast, there has been further curiosity around the film.
Well, thankfully the makers have managed to fulfil the huge expectations and presented a film that is much bigger and high impact than what the promos may have suggested.
It is the predicament faced by the character of Emraan Hashmi that forms the central theme of 'Raaz 3'. As a director (entirely different from the one he played by 'The Dirty Picture'), he finds himself trapped at just the time when his relationship with an actress (Bipasha Basu) is on the verge of deterioration.
Coping up with her tantrums is just an obligation and waiting for an excuse to come out of an ugly relationship, he is forced to go wrong with her competition (Esha Gupta) before getting into the right side of affairs. What happens from this point on is unimaginable, scary, thrilling and entertaining.
Within first 10 minutes of the film you know that director Vikram Bhatt didn't have any intention whatsoever to beat around the bush. The relationships are established, the plot set, the drama kick-starts and the film takes on the fourth gear the moment Bipasha encounters an 'aatma' (Manish Chaudhary).
Black magic starts playing its tricks and as audience you get to witness things that typically take a much longer time to make their presence felt in a regular dramatic affair.
This is where Vikram brings in a different way of narrating a horror tale (which could otherwise have become predictable). With Bipasha in a venomous mode, one would have expected her making scary faces, giving a tilt to her neck, as seen in many psycho theme movies with camera angles assisting in enhancing her performances. None of that happens here though as Bipasha looks and sounds danger but just by her dialogue delivery and scheming body language.
On the other hand Esha gets a much lengthier part to play than 'Jannat 2' and though one can see that there are a few rough patches at an instance or two, it is understandable that she had a tough role to play in her very second film.
Still, she makes up for that in quite a few emotional scenes where she does well. Her good looks and girl-in-damsel act further make one feel protective towards her and Emraan does full justice in playing a saviour.
Of course in Emraan's dictionary any act of anger or saviour starts and ends with a kissing followed by love making act and that is not different in 'Raaz 3' either.
Though one does feel that love making minutes after seeing a head being chopped off someone's body may be a little too difficult an act, Emraan seems to be playing in his territory and succeeds.
Having said that, he enacts his predicament well and is especially fantastic at the interval point. Also, it is good to see him in a role where instead of taking others for a ride (something that his characters have excelled in many films before), it is him who finds himself being taken for a ride, before he comes on his own!
With many other episodes, most notably the 'cockroach' scene punctuating the narrative well (especially in 3D), there are thankfully no dull moments except for the songs, all of which are totally avoidable and just manage to distract audience at more than just a couple of instance. Thankfully though, the background score is top notch as Raju Singh, a regular with Bhatts, gets it perfectly right all over again.
At the very onset you realise that 'Raaz 3' is not merely a horror movie. Reason being that horror is just a part of the affair, not an affair in itself which means instead of ugly faces striking you from different corners and doors squeaking at the corner of the room or 'bhatakti aatma' terrorising you in the dead of the night, it is the predicament faced by the characters that engross you most.
Go, have fun!
Rating: ***1/2
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