T-Series’ Hate Story 3 (A) is the third film in the Hate Story franchise. It is a story of deceit, jealousy and revenge. Aditya Diwan (Sharman Joshi) marries Sia (Zareen Khan), the girlfriend of his brother, Vikram Diwan (Priyanshu Chatterjee), after he dies in an accident. Aditya runs the huge business empire of his late father.
One day, Aditya gets a strange business proposal from a rich businessman, Saurav Singhania (Karan Singh Grover). Saurav is willing to finance Aditya for expanding his businesses, that too, interest-free, but in return, he wants to spend a night with Sia. ObviÂously, Aditya is livid and he turns down the offer with contempt. Saurav now gets after Aditya, ruining his business and even framing him for the murder of his (Aditya’s) trusted employee, Kaya (Daisy Shah). Aditya is jailed.
Saurav once again makes the indecent proposal to Sia to sleep with him and secure her husband’s release from prison. He promises to give her documentary proof of his innocence. Sia has no option but to agree. After being in bed with Saurav, Sia sees the same tattoo mark on his back as the one Vikram Diwan had.
Is Saurav none other than Vikram Diwan? Did Vikram survive the accident? Had he undergone plastic surgery? What was the truth behind Vikram’s accident? And who is Saurav? Why did he want to sleep with Sia?
Vikram Bhatt’s story is a rehash of several stories seen in earlier films. His screenplay seems to have been written without much application of mind because everything looks just too convenient. For instance, Saurav can so easily have a pesticide mixed in the cold drink manufactured in Aditya’s plant that it would appear that there were no quality control checks in place in the plant. Planting Kaya in Saurav’s office seems to be a left-hand job for Aditya. Getting data of one cell phone transferred to another also seems to be routine stuff for both, Saurav and Kaya. Framing someone for murder, securing his bail, just about everything and anything is possible for just about anyone and everyone. It is this screenplay of convenience which gives the audience the impression of being taken for a ride by the writer. But this is not the only minus point of the script. Even otherwise, the predictability of the plot is blatant and all too obvious right from the start. Besides, there is too much tension in the drama which is completely devoid of light moments, comedy, emotion and romance.
But there definitely is abundant senÂsuousness and skin show to titillate the masses. Vikram Bhatt’s dialogues are too flowery at several places, which seems odd in this type of modern-day drama.
Sharman Joshi is good but does overact in some scenes. Zareen Khan is expressionless. She tries hard to act but rarely succeeds. Karan Singh Grover performs reasonably well. Daisy Shah is average and her diction is pathetic. Priyanshu Chatterjee fails to make much of a mark. Sanjay Gandhi is ordinary. Prithvi Zutshi makes his presence felt. Puja Gupta passes muster in a special appearance. Others are okay.
Vishal Pandya’s direction is quite routine. He has not been able to add much to the mundane drama with his narration. But he has picturised the intimate scenes with finesse. Music (Meet Bros., Amaal Malik and Baman) is good but not outstanding. The ‘Tumhe apna banane ka junoon’ (remodelled on the ‘Tumhe apna banane ki’ song from Sadak) is, of course, the best because it is already popular since many years. Lyrics (Manoj Muntashir, Rashmi Virag, Kumaar and Shabbir Ahmed) are okay. Choreography of several of the songs (by Uma-Gaiti and Vijay GanÂguly-Dimple Ganguly) is sexy and appealing. Sunny Bawra and Inder Bawra’s background music is functional. Prakash Kutty’s camerawork is of a good standard. Abbas Ali Moghul’s action scenes lack excitement and are of the kind seen in hundreds of films earlier. Mrinal Das and Alok Haldar’s production designing is quite nice. Manish More’s editing is ordinary.
On the whole, Hate Story 3 is a very ordinary and routine fare but it definitely has skin show and intimate scenes to lure the masses and youngsters to the cinemas in the first weekend. Given its lovely start, it will prove to be above-average.